Stop Making Yourself Miserable

Weekly short learnings, perspectives, thoughts, and ideas to consider and reflect upon. These are not meant to be teachings, but innovative ideas that you might want to consider to see where they lead. So, absorb the information, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and watch what happens.

EP 128 - The Friend at the End - Part VI 12/09/2025

EP 128 - The Friend at the End - Part VI As we ended the last episode, the doctor had told me to eat, and oh man, did I start eating. Looking back on it, I call it ‘Healing in the Beehive,” because they put me on a standard American diet loaded with carbohydrates and sugar. And I loved every bit of it. Cheeseburgers, tuna melt sandwiches, cookies, cake, pie a la mode. You name it. It was like going down a nostalgic memory lane of the favorite foods of my childhood. I stayed in the hospital for a total of ten days. They explained to me that I had suffered a massive stroke, but for some reason, call it grace, luck or both, the huge blood clot that had caused it found its resting place in my lower right cerebellum. Although that part of the brain is responsible for movement and balance, and the clot had destroyed a large portion of it, it landed in a place that did me no lasting harm, except for a very minor visual impairment. It wiped out a small portion of my left peripheral vision, which just happens to have been where I started seeing that light in the beginning that started the whole thing. During my stay in the hospital, it seemed like everyone who was taking care of me reminded me again and again of how lucky I had been. It was kind of funny because I really didn’t have that much of a direct connection to my actual situation. I mean in my experience, I did have a day or two of being pretty out of it, but that’s about it, I was pretty out of it. And then the next thing I knew, I felt fine. Of course, Sally knew what had really happened because she had lived through it. But in essence, I kind of slept through it. And if I hadn’t been told how sick I’d been and how close to death I had actually come, I would never have known it. Anyway, during the hospital stay, it seemed like I was constantly presented with reminders of my situation . One night, for example, they brought me a piece of cherry pie ala mode, which was always one of my most favorite desserts, and I always get it with vanilla ice cream. Early on, that combination of cherry and vanilla had become a central part of my happy reward center. When I got to dessert and uncovered the plate, I saw that it had chocolate ice cream on the pie rather than vanilla. It was a bummer, but hey, I could handle it. “Oh,” I said, somewhat disappointed as I looked at the plate. A doctor was in the room, just finishing up his quick exam of me. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Oh nothing,” I replied. “It’s just that they brought me the wrong ice cream. I like vanilla on my cherry pie and they brought me chocolate. It’s no big deal.” “Do you know where you are?” the doctor asked me, quizzically. “Sure,” I replied, “I’m in the hospital.” “You’re in the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital of Neuroscience. You’ve had a massive stroke and you’re in the intensive care unit,” he corrected me. “And you know what? Most people get carried out of here or they get wheeled out. And it looks like you’re going to just stand up and walk away from all this.” He wasn’t confrontational at all. He was very nice, but he was clearly making his point. “If I were you,” he added, “I wouldn’t be thinking too much about chocolate and vanilla anymore.” He smiled at me and left the room. I got the message and took it in. It never hurts to be reminded of how fortunate you really are. Finally, my blood levels got to the right point and they decided to let me go. At the end, when I was ready to leave, I was sitting in my room and the head nurse came in to do some final paper work and say good-bye. Her name was Anna. She was in her late-forties and had come over from Russia about 20 years earlier. She saw me several times every day and we had become quite close. “You know, David, we have a folder here that we call the Hand of God Folder and that’s where your file’s going,” she said as she was filling out a form. “It’s for cases where a horrible tragedy could have happened, but for some reason it didn’t. And we can’t explain it. We don’t know how these remarkable things happen. If we did we would certainly try to do it ourselves. But we can’t. So –we have the Hand of God Folder…” She kept writing and then she looked up at me. “OK, we’re done,” she concluded. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way. You’re a very nice person and I’m glad we got to know each other. But I hope I never see you again.” She paused for a moment and looked me in the eye. I felt intuitively that she was about to say something deeply meaningful or me, and as soon as she began talking, I knew I was right. “Look, you were here for ten days. I’ve been here for twelve years, and believe me, I’ve seen everything. And you really have no idea what happened here and, let alone what you’ve been spared from. “Let’s just put it this way,” she continued, “For the rest of your life, if you woke up every morning and before you did anything, you got down on your knees and thanked God for the miracle that happened here, you’d still be understating it. “And even from just a medical perspective, this really was a miracle.” She went silent for a moment or two. “And believe me, you’ll never be able to come up with the amount of gratitude in your heart that would be appropriate for the gift that you’ve been given. Never. Ever.” Moving me to silence, her words went straight to my heart. “Well, I’m sure you’re right.” I thought to myself, deeply moved. And then something hit me, “Well, at least I can try.” Then another thought hit me, “Not a bad way to spend the rest of your life.” “Thank you, dear,” I finally said to her. “Thanks for everything.” She hugged me, gave me a kiss on the cheek and had me sit in the wheelchair that was mandatory for check outs. She wheeled me out into the hall, where Sally was waiting for me. They talked warmly for a few minutes, then my ever-faithful wife took the chair from her, and with rock-steady hands, wheeled me out to the car and drove me back home. Within a few months, I made a complete recovery from the stroke and was able to return to my normal life once again. It kind of felt like nothing had happened and physically, nothing really had. All my faculties were intact and my life went back to business as usual. But that was all on the outside. Within myself, I was never really the same again. How could I be? When you’ve been unexpectantly taken to the Exit Door like that and then you’re suddenly given another chance, it can be subtle, but everything on the inside changes. Now, for the most part, we all have our normal routines, our responsibilities, and of course, our hopes and fears. But as the years go on, most of our focus goes to solving our problems, big or small. It becomes a never-ending process and we can end up taking the best parts of our lives for granted while ignoring the incredible beauty that’s within us and around us. For me, that had all come to a sudden, screeching halt and I had been removed from my own routine for quite some time. Now, as I returned to it, even though externally it was basically the same, with the understanding that I had been given a second chance, I was seeing it with eyes that were drenched with gratitude. But something else was running through me as well. A feeling kept welling up within, like a powerful current at the bottom of the ocean that you can’t see from the surface, but you can certainly feel it if you’re standing in it. In this way, deep in the core of my being, I kept feeling a strong determination to make the most out of whatever time I had left. In that regard, as the stroke had begun and I was instructed to prepare to die, at one point I was asked if I had learned anything. And that simple question led me to realize how much I actually had learned about the higher understandings in life. At that point, I felt content with how I had lived and how much I had learned and I quickly came to the conclusion that if my time on Earth was really coming to an end at that point, I felt ready for it. Now, looking back on these extremely powerful events, I could see that my inner growth, the evolution of my awareness, was clearly the most important part of my life. And that made perfect sense because everything on the outside, my relationships with my family and friends, my life in the world, in essence who I thought I was and what I was doing, was just a basic reflection of my inner being, which was who I really was, within myself. I understood that I really could have easily died at that point, but I didn’t. Instead, I had been given more time and I was starting to grasp what a tremendous opportunity that was. Whether I had a few more months, a few more years or a few more decades, it was becoming clear that my focus was to keep on growing toward the highest. So, I returned to my inner practices with a renewed sense of determination. But I was in for an unexpected and rather pleasant surprise. It had all gotten much easier. Actually, looking back on it, it made perfect sense. A lot of the allure of the outer life had fallen away. A close brush with death has a way of doing that to you. It automatically reorganizes your priorities. Trivial things become really trivial. And what matters most, becomes what really matters the most. Now, my practices still required making effort, but things were very different. It was like what happens when winter starts turning into spring. You have the same back yard, but what a difference. The frost is melting and the frozen stream starts running again. Soon buds appear and the scene becomes filled with beautiful flowers and birds, not to mention the sweet fragrances that continually fill the air. But as beautiful as it is, it still requires conscious effort to tend the garden. But this is a different kind of effort – it’s the effort of finding, rather than the effort of searching. Although the outer may seem to remain the same, like a rocket that finally escapes the earth’s atmosphere, with the resistance gone, the inner transformation keeps picking up speed. So, to go from a space age analogy to an ancient one – as the Zen saying put it a couple of thousand years ago – Before Enlightenment: Chopping Wood and Carrying Water. After Enlightenment: Chopping Wood and Carrying Water. And to close with a much newer old statement from a song by David Byrne Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Well, let’s let these observations put a timeless end to this episode. And as always, keep your eyes mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/39230985

EP 127 - The Friend at the End - Part V 12/02/2025

EP 127 - The Friend at the End - Part V Now I was back on my own, just me, myself, and I. But my attention stayed with my breath as it continued to flow in and out of me. “As long as I’m breathing, I’ll know that I’m still alive,” I thought. Now, I had been meditating for many, many years, and part of that practice is to focus on your breath, but this was completely different. Before, the breath was a calming presence. Now, it was literally my lifeline. Breathing no longer felt like an automatic process and I made no assumptions about it. As each breath went out, it was clear that the next one might not be coming in. Instead of just feeling an automatic, mechanical motion, it felt more and more like each breath coming into me was like I was receiving some kind of a consciously given gift. After some time, I started feeling a little better. My eyesight problem was still the same, but my system seemed to have stabilized a little. I got up and walked around the pool for a bit. I kept feeling better and better, but I still could barely see. I could make out the time on my watch and was surprised to see that the whole episode had happened in about 30 minutes. My wife, Sally, hadn’t even come down to the pool yet. I decided to relax and see if I kept feeling better. Maybe my eyesight would clear up and it would all just pass. Sally came down about ten minutes later and she was pretty alarmed when she saw me. I felt a lot better, but she was very concerned. After a little while, she convinced me to go back up to our apartment with her and get into bed. I must have dozed off for a while because the next thing I knew, our family doctor walked into our bedroom. He was actually a member of our pool and when he got there for the day, some friends told him what was happening with me. He called Sally and she asked him to come up and give me a quick exam. I was surprised to see him. I asked him if he was planning on playing any golf over the weekend. He didn’t answer. He just took one look at me and said, “You’re going to the hospital right now. “ He took my pulse and said to Sally, “Go get an ambulance and tell them it’s urgent.” When I heard the word “ambulance” I said to Sally, “Make sure they’re taking me to Lankenau and not Roxborough,” Our condo is on the border between two hospitals. Lankenau is much more of a suburban hospital and Roxborough is located within the city limits. They always tell you to pick Lankenau if you get your choice. She came back in the room in a matter of moments. “OK,” she said to me, “They’re on their way over and they’re taking you to Lankenau.” “Is that for certain?” I asked. “Absolutely,” she answered. “They understood completely. There’s no question about it at all.” At that point, a whole different momentum started and I realized that my responsibilities in the world had just come to an end. I was about to become a patient, and the only thing I had to do was cooperate with the people who were about to take care of me. Whatever they told me to do, I would do. It was all out of my hands now. Was I going to live? Or was I about to die? Who could say? I thought I had been feeling better, but from the look on my doctor’s face, it was obvious that I was clearly in serious trouble. All that I had left now was my breath. It was the only thing that I could rely upon. “As long as I can feel my breath, I’ll know I still have a body,” I thought. “If I’m still conscious, but I can’t feel my breath anymore, then I’ll know the change has happened and I’ll just have to take it from there. But as long as I’m still breathing, I’m still here.” The ambulance came within a few minutes and I was on my way. The next 36 hours were pretty much of a blur. Sally told me later that I wasn’t given any drugs or sedatives at all, but I kept drifting in and out of consciousness. They took me to Lankenau, which is one of the top hospitals in our area. But after a CAT Scan, they immediately decided that my condition was critical and rushed me downtown to the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital of Neuroscience in the middle of the night. They determined that I was long past the point where they could have given me a “clot buster” to take care of the stroke. There was absolutely nothing they could do now but put me in intensive care and monitor me closely. While they hoped for the best, they gravely told Sally to prepare for the worst. “Stay with him. Hold his hand. Talk to him,” they said. “We might lose him tonight. Just…just don’t let him slip away…” The next thing I became aware of, I was lying in a hospital bed and Sally was holding my hand. When I opened my eyes and looked at her, she looked like she had really been through hell. She told me that I had been out of it for about 36 hours. “You’ve had a stroke,” she said. “But you’re going to be alright,” she assured me calmly and kept holding my hand. I looked around. I was obviously in an intensive care room. I moved every part of my body to see if everything was working okay and it was. I actually felt fine. Two close friends of mine had been through small stroke episodes over the past year. They were mini-strokes. They had to stay in the hospital overnight and then they went home. They were told that it wasn’t a big deal. I was pretty sure that’s what had happened to me. I felt completely fine. My vision had cleared up, except I had lost a small part of my upper left peripheral vision. But other than that, I seemed fine. Doctors and nurses came and went over the next half hour. They seemed happy to see that I was awake and gave me some very quick exams. One of them told Sally that I seemed to be doing pretty well and that she could take a break. I don’t know how long she had been there for, but she decided to go stretch her legs a little and get some coffee. The room that I was in had no windows, so it was impossible to tell what time of day it was. One of the nurses suggested that I relax and doze off for a little. Soon, I was lying in the room by myself. I closed my eyes to take it easy, but I had a funny experience. I found that I had some kind of inner vision. I could clearly see images inside of myself with my eyes closed. I saw an endless parade of black and white sketches. They were all of rabbis dressed in religious clothing, all from centuries long ago. It was crystal clear. There must have been hundreds of them, one right after another. Black and white sketch after sketch. It went on for a really long time. Then suddenly, instead of sketches, a small grey statue appeared. It was the image of the Madonna holding the Holy Child and it was really exquisite. As I stared at it, it rotated, giving me several different views. Then, all of a sudden, a full color figure burst out of the Madonna part of the statue. And to my shock and surprise, it was Wonder Woman, the comic book character. She was in her red, blue and gold outfit and she was wearing her bright gold crown on her head. She was standing on the ledge of a mountain and I noticed that she was holding a large grey sack. She looked at me, pulled her gold crown down over her eyes like a visor and flew into my brain. I watched as she methodically pulled glob after glob of bloody tissue out of my brain and put it into her sack. This went on for quite a while. Finally, she flew back out of my brain, and landed on the ledge of the mountaintop. She lifted the visor of her crown off of her eyes and put it back on top of her head. She looked at me and even though she was a miniature version of herself, she seemed to be the embodiment of raw power. She gave me a strong salute, grabbed the bag full of bloody brain material and flew away. I must have drifted off to sleep after that, because the next thing I knew, I awoke to Sally holding my hand again. She said I’d been out for about an hour. * * * Sometime a bit later, a very important looking doctor came walking into the room. He looked like he was in his middle sixties and was surrounded by about five medical students who were obviously studying under him. He introduced himself to me and told me that he was the actual head of the hospital. He gave me a quick examination and said a few things to his students. Then he sat down on the bed and looked me straight in the eyes. “David,” he began. “It’s really important that you understand something. What you had was not a mini-stroke or a TIA or anything like that. What you had was a major neurological episode that could have killed you in about three seconds, or maimed you permanently for the rest of your life. “You could have been blinded, paralyzed, lost your ability to speak, or all of it at the same time.” I was completely taken by surprise. I had no idea that any of that was true. I had basically been in a very comfortable, dreamy state, with absolutely no sense of danger. “Now it looks like you’re going to walk away from this whole thing basically unharmed. But you’re going to have to take care of your Atrial Fibrillation. The stroke was a direct result of it,” he concluded. “Really?” I asked. “Absolutely,” he replied. “There’s no question about it. The clot came straight from your heart.” I had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, about six months earlier. I had been treated with medication, but apparently it didn’t help. “Listen, the chances of walking away unscathed from a stroke of this magnitude are less than one in a thousand. You can’t reach back into the deck and pull out another card like this again. You have to take care of the A-Fib when you get out of here. “Which brings me to another point,” he continued. ‘We’re keeping you here for another ten days until we know your blood has been thinned down. We have to protect you from having another stroke. “The next forty-eight hours are critical though. Even though the worst is over, it’s still possible that you can have some swelling of the brain or even some brain bleeding. There can be damaged tissue involved. It’s not uncommon with a stroke. So we’re going to keep a really close watch on you. Suddenly, in my mind, I flashed on an image of Wonder Woman. As if sending me a message, she triumphantly held up the bag full of bloody material she had pulled out of my brain. “But as it is, you’re looking pretty good,” the doctor concluded and gave me a big smile. He looked over at a bulletin board on the wall. There was a sign that said,” David, Your Assignment Today Is To EAT.” “Oh yeah,” he said and pointed to the sign. “Eat, David. Eat up! You haven’t had anything in your system for a long time. You have to make up for it.” He gave me another very kind smile and walked out of the room, the five medical students trailing behind him. They closed the door and I was left alone in the dimly lit environment. I took a few breaths and let this new information sink into me. I had survived a major neurological episode that could have killed me in a matter of seconds or seriously injured me on a permanent basis. But now, according to this major medical authority, all was well. It was all way too much for me to process at that point but for some reason, I suddenly flashed on Wonder Woman holding that bagful of bloody brain matter, and her look of absolute assurance as she put her crown back on her head and gave me a warm salute that seemed to convey a deeply positive essence, rooted in the very power behind infinity. And as I intuitively let go of it all, I could feel the breath continue coming into me and going out. Coming in and going out. It was the same as it ever was, only very different… /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/39230920

EP 126 - The Friend at the End (Reprise) - Part IV 11/25/2025

EP 126 - The Friend at the End (Reprise) - Part IV This is the fourth episode in a series based on my upcoming book, The Friend at the End, which tells the story of the major stroke that I suffered in 2011, which very nearly killed me. In the last episode, I had continued my inner conversation with an unseen presence who had begun to introduce me to the idea that I might be dying. He suggested that I make the effort to get ready, but as I started to consider the idea, I had some trouble with it and felt like I was failing. Then the presence said to me, “Here, let me help you with this. Did ‘ja learn anything? Now, the story continues… “Did I learn anything?” My God, what a simple little question! And asked in the most casual, way. Like from his tone, he could’ve just as well asked me if I had eaten a lot of pizza in my life, that’s about how important it seemed. My initial reaction was no reaction at all, and I drew a complete blank. But then, something unexpected happened. Suddenly, a series of pictures began appearing in my mind’s eye. The pictures were all of me, in different stages of my life. They went through linear time, beginning on the day I was born. There were so many of them, it almost seemed like there was one for every day of my life. It was weird because they seemed to be moving very fast and very slow at the same time. Although I clearly recognized each one of them and remembered the experiences they showed, rather than stirring up memories, I was just extracting the essence of the feelings that I’d had during them - happy, sad, amazed, confused, and on and on. Finally, after every age of my life and every role that I had played had been presented, the last picture I saw was of me at this very second, sitting in my bathing suit at the swimming pool, looking at all these pictures. Then my mind went back to normal and the episode, or whatever it was, ended. I guess you could call it a life review of some kind. But before I could give it any thought, another image came into my mind’s eye. This time, it wasn’t a still picture, it was more like a movie, and I was in it and watching it at the same time. I was in a small boat on a river and the boat kept changing forms. For a little while, it was a standard row boat and I was rowing it. Then it changed to a canoe and I was paddling it. Then it became a small motor boat and I was in the back, steering it by moving the motor. Then it went back to being a row boat again, and it just kept switching forms. All of a sudden, I was teleported up to the inside of an airplane that was flying high above the river. I kept switching viewpoints, from being on the boat to being on the plane. Then, in the next instant, I was rowing the boat down the river and flying in the plane above it, both at the same time. I was in two places at once, and fully conscious of each. The river had a lot of twists and turns to it, and from the viewpoint of being in the boat, you could only see what was in front of you. You couldn’t see beyond the next bend. But the vantage point from the plane was totally different. I could see the whole river, all at once. I could look back to where it had begun, I could see all the way forward to the point where it finally merged into the ocean. Then, at one point, all of the pictures of my life that I had reviewed earlier, flashed in front of me once again. But this time, the scenes went by in what seemed like just a few seconds. Then it all vanished from my mind and I was back in normal life, sitting on my chair near the pool. The whole thing had taken me by surprise and it left me with a lot to absorb. Slowly, a series of realizations and understandings began to dawn on me. The first one was that even though I knew that I might be dying and I had just seen pictures from every stage of my life, I felt no real attachment to any of it. It may seem odd, but it’s pretty simple. My father had died from a massive heart attack when I was sixteen, and his sudden death forced me to accept the harsh reality of the impermanence of all life on earth. I had no other choice. We all have to go one day, and I had been living with that understanding for almost fifty years, knowing that you just have to surrender to it, come what may. After reviewing all the pictures I had seen, although I felt a lot of happiness and appreciation for the days gone by, they clearly belonged to the past. Looking at them had been like revisiting fond memories of a place that didn’t exist anymore, and from experience I knew that there is no real power in memories. The power is in the intelligence that is doing the remembering. So, from the perspective of looking back on my life, if my time had actually come, I had no regrets about it. There was nothing left undone and what will be, will be. I moved from thinking about the pictures to reflecting on the whole sequence with the boat on the river and the plane flying above it, and some profound realizations came to me. While riding in the boat, the turns in the river were like going through all the day-to-day experiences of my life. Like everything else that is subject to time, they all came and went, seeming so real while they lasted, only to eventually fade away, like a passing dream. And the fact that the boat kept changing forms represented the way that my body and mind had kept changing forms as I went through the natural growth cycle from baby to adult and beyond. The fact that I could never see beyond the next bend in the river was a reminder of the uncertainty we all face in our lives. No matter what we hope or expect, we can never really know what’s coming around the next corner. But the view from the plane was the opposite. From there, I could see the whole river from beginning to end, and my intuition told me that the entirety of the river itself represented my conscious awareness, my essential self, as it passed through all the twists and turns of my life. This was critically important for me because I had always felt that there must be some higher purpose to life other than just running around trying to fulfill your dreams and desires. Otherwise, it just didn’t make any sense, because no matter what you end up getting, you lose it all in the end anyway. Of course, we all have our own personal views, but for me, the idea really got driven home by my father’s death. Not only was it a major shock, but there were also some very unusual and rather metaphysical things that happened to me during it that made me feel that there was more to life than meets the eye. By the age of twenty-two, I had begun a serious study of all the higher understandings about life that I could find, including practicing a powerful form of mediation that helped accelerate my inner growth. Nurturing and expanding my higher awareness had remained the primary focus of my entire adult life. Now, as I was pondering the idea of the flow of the whole river representing the evolution of my consciousness, I realized how much I had grown as a human being in my life. I had gone from having the dull consciousness of a shallow creature, almost robotically programmed into ignorance by an unenlightened society, into one who had explored the depths of his being, connected with the higher awareness within, and had led a profound life, filled with meaning, freedom, fulfillment and ever-expanding inner growth and happiness. Of course, there had been an endless amount of twist and turns along the way, but because I had been growing, the challenging ups and downs had only made me stronger. And now, like a farmer who had been nurturing his crops for a very long season, I was deeply gratified with the yield. “My God, this certainly wasn’t a wasted trip,” I thought. “What a life of learning!” And with that thought, the unseen power of my unseen friend’s casual question really hit me. His simple, off-hand inquiry, “Did ‘ja learn anything” had triggered all this, bringing the value of inner growth to the forefront and making it clear that while you may have to leave it all at the end, you do get to keep what you learn, because that evolution of your consciousness becomes an actual part of you. Now, the most important point became clear to me. I was deeply grateful for the life I had been given and had made the most of it. I had grown into a better human being and was satisfied with the person I had become. I felt complete. Then I thought of the image of the river again and pictured it merging into the ocean, and I recalled something I once learned in school. The ocean has a powerful, magnetic attraction that draws the river towards it, pulling it back into its source. As it gets closer to the ocean, the current of the river gets stronger and it starts flowing faster and faster, almost like it can’t wait for the merging to happen. There was something not only comforting, but also enticing about the idea, and I felt that if my personal river was about to merge into the vastness of its original source, I was ready for it. Bring it on. Then, with a sublimely steady sense of clarity in my heart and mind, I finally turned my attention to my unseen friend and said with calm assurance, “OK. If this really is the end of my life, then the answer is - yes, I am ready,” “Good,” it said. “Good.” Once again, everything went quiet and still. I figured my life was over and we’d be leaving soon for whatever came next. “OK, now listen,” it said, somewhat softly “This may not make sense to you now, but the truth is, no one knows whether you’re going to live or die from what’s happening to you. It’s just not known at this time. It can go either way. You could get better quickly or you could get taken out just as quickly. It’s just not determined yet. But either way, you know how to handle this,” it said calmly. “You know what to do now.” My awareness shifted and once again I became fully conscious of my body as I was lying on the lounge chair. Although my vision was still seriously impaired, it had gotten slightly better and I could see a little bit. I could feel the breath coming in and going out of me, like it always does, but now, I started focusing on it much more deeply. Being in tune with the breath was always a major part of my practice and I had done it for decades, but it was different now. Now, it wasn’t just about relaxation, clarity of mind, or elevation of consciousness. Now it was about survival. As I felt the rise and fall of each breath, the presence of my unseen friend remained clear. It felt more familiar to me now than ever, but I still couldn’t put my finger on how or why. It just seemed to be a part of me, but not a part of me at the same time. I knew that my fate was undetermined, so, I just let go and surrendered to the power that was sustaining me through the lifeline of my breath. “Good,” the presence said, encouragingly. “By the bridge of your breath, just stay in the safety of the Divine Presence that’s within you. No matter what happens now, whether you live or die, that’s always where your real shelter is.” In the next instant, the presence was gone and I knew it. I was on my own now, just taking each breath as it came to me, one at a time. Well, that’s the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/39230375

EP 125 - The Friend at the End (Reprise) - Part III 11/18/2025

EP 125 - The Friend at the End (Reprise) - Part III This is the third episode in a series based on my upcoming book, The Friend at the End, which tells the story of the major stroke that I suffered in 2011, which very nearly killed me. In the last episode, I had gone down to the pool at our condo for the first day of summer, but I started feeling kind of queasy. My condition worsened, and at one point, to my shock, I lost my eyesight and thought I was going blind. I soon realized that not only was I in the midst a truly serious health crisis, I was also having a seemingly telepathic communication with an inner presence of some kind. And this presence kept suggesting to me that I might be in the process of dying. As I began to accept the idea, it casually asked me, “Are you ready?” That was the end of the last episode. This one begins with my reaction to that unexpected question. “Am I ready? What? Am I ready?” I responded to myself. The question caught me completely off-guard and it really threw me. What I thought had been a theoretical conversation had suddenly become a reality and I felt like I’d been shoved off the boat into a freezing ocean and was now in hostile water, surrounded by unknown dangers. Of course, I knew that things were serious. My vision was shot and being involved in a telepathic communication within my own mind was beyond strange, to say the least. But, as distressing as it was, up until then, it was all just talk. Suddenly, these three little words – are you ready - brought me face to face with my own death, and basically, it scared me out of my wits. But then, the next thing I knew, my fear quickly turned into anger. And it felt like righteous anger. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live. It was a simple as that. Things were going great; I was in the prime of my life and I didn’t see any reason why it should have to end. After a few more moments, my survival instinct took over and with a strong sense of resolve, I decided to stand and fight. I was done with this whole death thing and I didn’t want to hear any more about it. Who was this guy, anyway? And why should I listen to him? I would give this unseen and unwelcomed visitor a piece of my mind. “Look, whoever or whatever you are,” I said to whoever or whatever it was, “Now you listen to me. If you’re asking me if I want to die, the answer is no! There is not one atom in my being that wants to die! I don’t want to die. I want to live.” Then, having studied the power of crafting a pure intention and clearly expressing it, I decided to make a strong affirmative decree into the universe, of my desire and intention to live. “I declare that any and all thoughts and fears of death have no part of me whatsoever. I banish them from my consciousness and negate them entirely. I affirm now and forever, my unshakable oneness with the infinite power of the divine energy that is within me.” Then, with every part of my being and from the very depths of my soul, I firmly declared, “I CHOOSE LIFE!!!” It felt like I had tapped into the faith that can move mountains, and I could feel the power of my intention resonate out into infinity. There was an inherent rightness to it and it was followed by a deeply profound and satisfying sense of inner peace. “Good answer!” this whatever-it-was said to me a few moments later. “Well done! Very well done indeed!” “Wow!” I thought, resting in the afterglow of the affirmation. “Okay!” It was all so simple. Sometimes you just have to stand your ground. You align yourself with the integrity of your being, connect with the power of the universe and make your intention clearly known. Then, everything can change in an instant. As I thought about it, maybe this whole dying thing had actually been a test of some kind. And maybe I had just passed through an initiation and would be moving into a greater level of consciousness, with a deeper understanding of life. Anyway, whatever it was, test or not, I felt like I had passed with flying colors. My confidence was back. I was on track and I felt great. “So, look,” the presence said, “you’ve obviously done a lot of inner work in your life and it’s clear that you’ve learned a lot. You made a powerful expression of your intent and will to live, and you did it from your heart. Again, well done! Very well done! “But David,” it continued calmly, “Although, in its place, there is tremendous power in this kind of method, it’s only valid up to a point. There’s a very important level that’s beyond all that.” I didn’t know where things were heading, but suddenly something inside of me said, “Uh-oh.” “In the physical world, you do get to choose a lot of things,” it continued. “But you don’t get to choose the length of your life and you don’t get to choose how and when it will end. “Some flies live for one day, a butterfly for two weeks. Some trees live for thousands of years and stars like the sun can shine for ten billion. But it’s all just a matter of degree, because this is a realm of impermanence and nothing here lasts. Sooner or later, one way or another, everything here ends. “But the source of it all never ends. You can call it God, the Higher Power, or any of the thousands of other terms that people have come up with over the years. Call it what you want, or don’t call it anything at all, but this universal power is what is keeping you alive, as well as the rest of creation. And it will decide when it’s time for you to go. “Of course, it’s great that you’re aware of it, but don’t make the silly mistake of thinking that you control it, because you don’t. No one does. It’s not even close. And by the way, you didn’t come here to control it, you came here to surrender to it.” It was a short, concise little talk, but it took the wind right out of my sails. My personal power vanished immediately, like a balloon that was burst by a sharp needle. The presence paused a little to let the information sink in and then continued. “Now, although you just made a very strong, clear and firm statement, you didn’t answer the question that I asked you. I didn’t ask what you wanted. I asked you if you were ready. So, let me ask you again – Are you ready? And if you’re not, then you better get ready. Because even though on one level, time is just an illusion, on another, it’s very real. And the truth is - you’re running out of it. So, are you ready?” The situation had obviously become crystal clear. I had to face facts and let go of the idea that I had any choice left in the matter. That ship had sailed, if it had ever been there in the first place. Clearly, things were in motion now and I had to get my inner affairs in order. So, was I ready for this? If this really is the end, would anything major be left undone? Might I have regrets? Or even remorse? Whatever. I had to decide if I was ready and supposedly, time was getting short. It seemed like a ridiculously tall order and I had no idea how to approach it. So, I just asked myself, “Okay, so am I ready?” and I waited to see what happened next. Something came to mind immediately. It seemed unfair to me that I should have to die so young. Why such a short life? After all, I was only 62 years old and other than today’s crazy episode, I seemed to be in great health. And it was all so sudden. But my thoughts went straight to what happened to my father. He was only 52 years old when he instantly dropped dead from a massive heart attack, which means that I would still be getting a full ten years more than he got. And talk about sudden, he literally died in a heartbeat. In another moment, the whole unfairness argument went right out the window. I relaxed a little and waited to see what came up next. Out of nowhere, I felt an enormous wave of gratitude and relief wash over me. The feeling seemed to exist on its own, with no apparent connection to any form of thought. I just felt incredibly grateful and unbelievably relieved, for no noticeable reason. Then suddenly I realized a critical fact that hadn’t occurred to me before - my life insurance policy was in full force and if I did die, my wife and daughter would be well taken care of after I was gone. The feelings of gratitude and relief suddenly made perfect sense. They had just hit my consciousness before any thoughts of explanation had caught up to them. In reality, I can never overstate how much this fact meant to me at this point in time. The relief was far beyond words. As a writer, I had led a somewhat unconventional life and my financial fortunes had ebbed and flowed over the years - sometimes up and sometimes not so up. But fortunately, I had always been able to maintain a fairly substantial life insurance policy for them. To me, this contingency planning had always represented a monument to sane responsibility. From where I was standing now, when it comes to monuments, it made Mt. Rushmore look like a little sand castle. Thank God my wife and daughter would be financially secure after I died! I knew they would be safe after I was gone, and a deep sense of peace came over me. It’s funny looking back on it, but I didn’t feel any anxiety over what would happen to them emotionally after I died. I had learned from experience that death and separation are an inevitable part of life, and we all have a built-in human capacity to recover from them. I knew that although it would be tough, eventually they’d recover. That’s the just way we’re made. But the fact that they weren’t going to have to face a financial catastrophe on top of the sudden shock and grief was enormously soothing and the gratitude and relief I felt came from the very depths of my being. At that point, I felt complete about my external responsibilities in life. As far as being ready, that area was covered and I waited for whatever else came up next. But to my surprise, nothing did. My mind kind of went silent and I seemed to be in a state of nothingness. I continued to wait. “Could that be it?” I finally asked myself. “That’s all you’ve got? Come on, here you are, trying to see if you’re ready to die, and all you can come up with are these two things – that you think your life was cut too short and that you’re glad your life insurance policy is in force. That’s it? Nothing else? Come on man, there’s gotta be more.” Still, nothing else came up. My mind was a complete blank, which seemed incredible. All my life, it had been churning out thought after thought of never-ending chatter, and now, at this critical moment, all of a sudden it goes radio-silent? I was stuck and I felt like something was wrong. It seemed like I wasn’t doing this right and I got worried. “I don’t want to blow this,” I thought, “My God, of all things, I don’t want to be a failure when it comes to dying!” “Here, let me help you with this a little,” the voice, or whatever it was, chimed in. It was a pleasant surprise. I had actually completely forgotten all about it and was very happy that it was still there. Once again, I felt how familiar it seemed to be. I couldn’t see it, but I could sense it, like a wise old friend with only my best interests at heart, giving me a kind, reassuring smile. Then, in a most relaxed and casual tone, it asked me, “Did ‘ja learn anything?” /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/39230295

EP 124 - The Friend at the End (Reprise) - Part II 11/11/2025

EP 124 - The Friend at the End (Reprise) - Part II (Reprise Episode) This episode is the second in a series of excerpts from my upcoming book, “The Friend at the End,” which tells the story of the major stroke that I suffered in 2011. As the first episode began, I was 62 years old, at a wonderful stage in my life, with everything safe and secure. It was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and I was looking forward to the summer, which was just over the horizon. But when I had gone down to the pool at our condo, after a short while, I started feeling a little nauseous. Soon after, an unusual and disturbing white light appeared in my upper left peripheral vision. At first, I thought the light was coming from somewhere on the outside, but I soon realized that it was coming from within me, which was extremely alarming. So, that marked the end of the first episode, now the story continues… In reality, vision impairment is a classic symptom of a stroke, but I just didn’t know that at the time. If I had, I would have dropped everything and gone straight to the emergency room. But I didn’t have that information. That’s the real Catch-22 when it comes to knowledge. You never know what you don’t know. You just can’t. By definition, the unknown remains unknown until you finally find it out. And hopefully, by then, it’s not too late. Anyway, I felt a little tired and laid back down on my lounge chair and tried to relax. I’m not sure what happened next, but I must have drifted off to sleep. I don’t know how long I was out, but when I woke up and opened my eyes, I was met with a complete shock. My entire field of vision had radically changed. I could still see, but it was like looking at the world through a splintered kaleidoscope, a bizarre Picasso painting of bright colors and random fractal patterns. I had never experienced anything like it before and obviously, things had taken a major turn for the worse. It was seriously disconcerting. Oddly though, the feeling of nausea was gone completely. Other than this bizarre vision issue, I felt fine. I opened and closed my eyes a few times, but nothing changed. I still saw the world in the same splintered, fractal way. I closed my eyes for a moment to try to stabilize myself and the vision suddenly appeared within. I opened my eyes again, and to my shock and dismay, I couldn’t tell whether my eyes were opened or closed. It didn’t matter. Opened or closed, my field of vision remained exactly the same. I still saw the same set of broken, fractal lights. What had been bad had suddenly gotten much worse. This was, by far, the most alarming thing that had ever happened to me physically in my life, and immediately, a chilling fear came over me. “Oh my God! I’m going blind!” I thought. It was earth-shattering. I felt like a bug splattered on a speeding windshield, and my mind went wild with a flood of terrifying images of me, living my life as a blind man. The horrible scene went on for quite a while, before I could finally pull myself together. “Whatever’s going on, this is much worse than I thought,” I said to myself, as I recognized how seriously things had deteriorated. “This is bad. This is really bad.” I was stunned and had no idea what to do. “Yeah, this is definitely much worse than you thought,” I thought. “And you know what, it might actually be much worse than you think it is now. Forget about going blind. You might actually be dying. This could be the beginning of the end.” The unwelcomed idea hadn’t occurred to me before and it stopped me dead in my tracks. “Now wait a second,” I responded, “Let’s not go to extremes here.” I quickly tried to pull myself together. Even though I was definitely in bad shape, I certainly didn’t want to entertain any thoughts of dying. Why let that in? It couldn’t possibly help. So, I quickly decided to put it out of my mind. But a few moments later, it came back again. “Look, of course, the idea is upsetting to you, to say the least. And obviously dying is the last thing in the world you want to think about. But still…” “But still, what?” I countered, sharply. “Still, you don’t really have a choice. The way things are going, at this point you have to consider everything. You really do.” Okay, so this was the rational, non-emotional side of my mind talking to me in its rational, non-emotional way. And it was probably right to consider the worst-case scenario. But I instantly dismissed the idea again. Sure, it was normal for me to have had a passing thought that I might be dying, but that’s all I wanted it to be - just a passing thought. As far as the actual reality of it was concerned, I would have none of it. “No. It can’t be. Not like this. Not now. No way.” “Well, why not?” Mr. Rationality responded rationally. “You know it’s going to happen someday; it has to. There’s no way around it. It’s written in stone. So why not now? And why not like this? Just because it’s sudden and you weren’t expecting it, that doesn’t mean anything. Look what happened to Daddy.” There was no refuting the logic of it. And bringing up my father was a major factor for me. He had died instantaneously of a massive heart attack at the age of 52, and I’m sure he never knew what hit him. Here one minute, gone the next. I was sixteen years old and along with the terrible shock and grief, it really drove the point home that any one of us can go at any time. Nobody operates with any guarantees here. That’s not the way it works. “You have to understand something,” this part of me went on. “There are no rules now and anything can happen.” It paused for a moment. “Face it. This really could be the end of the line for you. You very well might be dying.” The weight of the reality of death began to sink into me like a ton of wet concrete sliding out of a cement mixer, and it rattled me to the core. Just a few minutes ago, I was facing the fear that I was might be going blind, and that was absolutely devastating. Still, you can learn how to live with it. Millions of people have. But while you can learn how to live with being blind, you can’t learn how to live with being dead. No. This wasn’t about coming to a major crossroads in my life. This was about coming to the actual end of it, and it was staggering. I was in a whole new world and I knew it. I started to feel disoriented. “Oh my God!” was the last thing that came into my mind before it went blank. I think I went thoughtless, and it might have been for fifteen seconds, fifteen minutes, or even more. In that state, who knows? Anyway, at some point, I could think again. “Could it really be true?” I asked myself, soberly “I mean, could this really be it?” “Well, you can’t rule it out,” I answered myself. “Look, you’ve never experienced anything like this before. Things are obviously getting worse, and there’s no telling where this might lead. Anything can happen. You just have to face facts.” “Yeah. Okay,” I thought, still stunned. “Listen, Dying isn’t a question of ‘if,’ it’s only a matter of ‘when.’ And as far as what it’s going to be like when it actually does happen, well, nobody really knows that until they get there,” the rational side said. “Then you find out for sure.” It was obviously true. We have no idea of what our actual death is going to be like. We have no frame of reference for it. It’s not like you’re going to a new beach where you’ve never been before. But you know what to expect from a day at the beach, so you throw a bathing suit and a towel into a bag, grab a beach chair, and you’re good to go. No, it’s nothing like that. This is 100% uncharted territory. And although we may all have our ideas about it, that’s all they are – just ideas. At that point, I realized that I had no idea what to do. So, I just sat there, with this bizarre field of colored. fractal vision filling my head, whether my eyes were opened or closed. I was stuck. Checkmate. Then something hard to describe happened. Call it a stroke of insight or a flash of intuition, but suddenly two critical points became unmistakably clear to me. And they were both seriously disconcerting. The first one was that I knew for sure that I was in serious trouble and that my life was on the line. I knew that I very well might be dying and it was beyond any doubt to me. I had no further questions about it at all. The second one was more subtle and much harder to grasp. I knew intuitively that some of the thoughts I had been thinking weren’t actually coming from me. This little conversation that had been going on inside my mind wasn’t just between me, myself, and I. I felt like there was something or someone else, a presence of some kind, speaking to me through the instrument of my own mind. Now, the very idea that I was receiving some form of mental telepathy was deeply unnerving, to say the least, and I hoped I wasn’t just losing my mind. I mean, after all, dying is bad enough, but I didn’t want to go nuts on top of it. It was quite an intense moment and a strong wave of anxiety washed over me. But still, almost within that wave, there was another feeling that was equally as strong. I felt that this presence, or whatever it was that was talking to me, was somehow familiar. It was like an old friend that I had forgotten so long ago that I didn’t even have a distant memory of it. Just a vague feeling that I had forgotten something, but I couldn’t remember what it was. The only thing I could remember was that I had forgotten. But whatever this thing was, I knew that I knew it. I just didn’t know how. It was too out of reach. As this wave of familiarity kept radiating to me from just beyond my awareness, somehow, I could sense a rightness to it and something within me seemed to surrender to the situation. Any remaining doubts I had got set aside and I felt myself go all in. It felt uncomfortably strange, yet strangely comfortable at the same time. “Ok, good,” it finally said, seeming to respond to my new state of mind. “You’re getting clear now. Stay as clear as you can. There may be a lot different things coming up for you soon, and clarity will help you stay focused on what’s important. Clarity will keep you strong.” Another long pause seemed to happen, then it continued, “So, you have to understand where things are now. You are coming to a major turning point.” Somehow the level of communication had crystalized considerably. Like a cell phone that suddenly becomes static-free, my reception was much more clear. “This truly is the possible end of your life on earth,” it continued. “And it’s time to start wrapping things up. And at this point, one question becomes critically important for you.” We sat in silence for an endless moment of eternity. Then a very firm, but very kind voice, it asked me, “Are you ready?” So that’s the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/39230185

EP 123 - The Friend at the End (Reprise) - Part I 11/04/2025

EP 122 - A Joyful Opportunity 10/28/2025

EP 122 - A Joyful Opportunity A Joyful Opportunity On a certain level, we human beings are quite an accomplished species. And this is because there is a key part to our consciousness that is always trying to improve, always trying to make things better. We call this our striving mind and without it, we’d still be living up in trees, let alone in caves. But like every other part of our awareness this can be a real double-edged sword, causing us every bit as much suffering as it does happiness. But when it comes to striving, it so happens that we have another part of our awareness that is on a completely different wavelength and we’re going to examine this unique level of awareness in our episode today. The Transformative Value of Making Effort To begin, I once read of a conversation between Ted Turner and Captain Jacques Cousteau. They were traveling together on the Calypso, and everywhere they went, they saw the same thing — garbage and pollution everywhere, forests stripped bare, and the ocean losing its color along with its sea life. Turner turned to Cousteau and said, “Captain, I’m getting discouraged.” And Cousteau, as I remember it, responded with something like: “Don’t do that. Even if we knew without a doubt that we were going to fail, and that our efforts would be to no avail, we would still carry on — and we would do it with joy in our hearts, grateful for the blessing of having been given the gift of serving the highest good.” I have no idea how long ago I read that or where, but as you can tell, I placed it on a high shelf in my mind’s personal hall of fame. The simple truth of that idea has never left me, because it brings up the essence of what is known in Universal Wisdom as selfless service — the act of doing something purely for the sake of serving the higher good. And that kind of action can be transformative on many levels. When we serve something larger than ourselves, the very act of making our best effort — regardless of whether or not it will succeed — becomes the place where meaning and grace merge. There’s a particular kind of beauty in that moment when a person realizes that the offering of trying itself is sacred. What Cousteau offered Turner, and what is being offered to us still, is not merely an argument for optimism but a reminder of the sacredness and purity of serving the highest. Even when the world may seem irredeemably broken, the act of caring — of showing up, of doing one’s part with the highest intention, even with love, if possible — has the power to change the very fabric of our own being. It can turn despair into service, and on some deep level, the river of service eventually flows into the river of joy. The Meaning of Effort This kind of effort is very different from the frantic strivings of self-serving ambition. It’s more like a deliberate and wholehearted engagement with life itself. Although we live in a culture that tends to measure worth by results: grades, profits, likes, followers, medals and the like, there is a deeper truth beneath those surface metrics. On a neurological level, the right kind of effort can lead to a profound biochemical affirmation of purpose. Every time we take action toward something meaningful, the brain’s reward system releases small waves of dopamine, which noticeably increases when we are engaged in an activity for the higher good. This is what neuroscientists call the reward prediction system. It’s the brain’s way of saying: keep going — this really matters. The Inner Alchemy The transformative value of effort lies in this invisible alchemy: we are changed not by the reward, but by the rhythm of trying. Each time we resist the pull of doubt, resignation, or failure, we strengthen the neural pathways that connect intention to perseverance. It is the inner moral equivalent of muscle growth. Within the framework of neuroplasticity, the fibers of attention, will, and patience are slowly woven together through repetition and sincere effort. The ancients knew this long before neuroscience gave it language. The Bhagavad Gita reminds us, “You have the right to your actions, but not to the fruits of your actions.” Krishna’s counsel to Arjuna was not a cold command of detachment—it was a revelation of liberation: that freedom is born when effort itself becomes an offering, a form of devotion. When we engage fully, without clinging to the outcome, we step into a sacred rhythm of creation. In that rhythm, the mind begins to quiet, the heart steadies, and the soul recognizes itself in the very act of striving with surrendered effort. The Sacred Practice of Trying Sometimes we come to believe that trying and failing is our lot in life—that, like Sisyphus, we are doomed to endless futility. Yet the capacity to keep trying, especially when the outcome is uncertain, is one of the most noble signs of an awakened life. The Stoics taught that to love the effort itself—even when the result remains unseen—is to live in harmony with the deeper order of things. To persist with grace is not naïve optimism; it is a conscious alignment with what is true and life-giving. When we learn to love our higher efforts, our joy is no longer hostage to the world’s approval. Instead, we begin to feel a quiet, inner strength in the act of being faithful to our own higher purpose. The Neuroscience of Purpose Modern neuroscience offers an intriguing mirror to these timeless truths. Studies from Stanford, Harvard, and the Max Planck Institute reveal that when people engage in purposeful effort—especially acts rooted in compassion, creativity, or mastery—the brain’s prefrontal cortex begins to synchronize with deeper limbic structures such as the amygdala and hippocampus. This state of alignment produces what researchers call harmonic resonance—a condition in which emotion and reason cease to be adversaries and become partners in coherence. This, at its essence, is what the NeuroHarmonic Method is all about: aligning the hemispheres, unifying the self, and transforming the inner world into a harmmonic field of peace. The effect is truly transformative on every level of life. A Story of Renewal Over the past several years, I’ve been a consultant to a halfway house for men in recovery from substance abuse and alcoholism and have been privileged to witness this profound change with many of them. The recovery process can often feel exhausting because so often, it involves the process of beginning again—to stand once more at the foot of the mountain after another slipup or setback. But once the neurology is in place, beginning again stops feeling like failure. It becomes an empowering expression of perseverance, expressing the resilience of inner faith in motion. With that change, each new beginning continues to rewire the brain and the days become less defined by the past and more attuned to the present. In short, the brain learns hope by practicing it. The NeuroHarmonic View From the NeuroHarmonic perspective, the right kind of effort is the music of transformation. The circuitry of the self begins to shift from fragmentation to harmony. The fear of failure grows more quiet and the higher mind, which delights in growth, begins to lead. The surrendered act of trying becomes a note in the great symphony of becoming—proof that the universe responds not to perfection, but to sincerity. The Gift of Serving the Highest The words attributed to Cousteau remind us that joy can coexist with uncertainty. We don’t serve because we know we will succeed or because we anticipate the rewards of success. This is larger than just the striving mind. We act because we feel called to serve. To act on behalf of life, love, and truth—even in a broken world—is to affirm the sacred pulse of existence itself. The paradox is that in surrendering, we become most effective. Our energy stops fragmenting into worry and begins to flow as calm, clear intention. In this way, the wave finds peace by realizing it belongs to the ocean. And in that recognition, effort transforms into offering, and service becomes joy. Closing Reflection So, when you feel weary of trying—when the world’s noise or your own doubts pull you toward hopelessness or despair—remember this: according to the universal wisdom of human growth, effort is never wasted. Every time you offer your best, no matter how small the act, something deep within you expands and grows. The act of trying is itself a prayer. It aligns you with the rhythm of creation, the current of compassion, and the unseen architecture of renewal. To make effort in this way—with joy in your heart—is to live as if the Divine were watching from within, and not only watching, but smiling. Because in the end, the one who makes effort in this surrendered way has already succeeded in the only way that truly matters. The NeuroHarmonic Perspective On the deepest level, neuroscience reveals that the process of making meaningful effort activates the same neural pathways associated with pleasure and purpose. The act of trying itself sends a signal to the brain that life still holds meaning. It’s as though the brain whispers, “You are alive, and your choices matter.” When we understand this, even small acts—cleaning a space, comforting a friend, or returning to a state of inner balance regardless of externals, become deep neurological affirmations. Each one reinforces a living pattern that says, “I am engaged with life. I am participating in something greater than guilt, doubt, or fear.” The Higher Labor of Liberation This is why the great spiritual masters of every age have emphasized right action over right results. The Gita, the Tao, the Sermon on the Mount—each reveals the same paradox: that higher labor leads to liberation, and serenity is born through sincere effort. When we act with a purity of intent untethered from personal gain, something profound occurs within us. The brain begins to synchronize effort with meaning, generating a sense of coherence that modern psychologists now recognize as essential to well-being. It’s not merely what we do, but the state of consciousness in which we do it that determines the depth of our fulfillment. The Gentle Nature of True Perseverance Now, when discouragement arises—as it inevitably will—it is not a failure of strength, but a momentary forgetting of this higher truth. And here’s the wonder if it all: the human nervous system is built for adaptation. It can absolutely remember to walk on the high road again. That’s why true perseverance can be so remarkably gentle, rather than forceful. It listens inwardly. It knows when to rest, when to breathe, and when to begin again. And in that transformation, we witness the remarkable miracle as the brain literally rewires itself for resilience, encoding the pattern of true inner evolution. And perhaps this is the quiet secret behind every genuine awakening: the recognition that persistence, when joined with grace, is not about merely enduring — it is transforming. The Company of Saints and Scientists To make effort without attachment in this way is to walk in the company of saints and scientists alike for both seek truth beyond outcome. Both are fueled by creativity as well as devotion. When a musician practices scales, a gardener tends the soil, or a recovering soul makes it through another day sober — each is performing an act of faith disguised as making effort. And the joy lies not only in successful resolution but more importantly, in active participation. In the willingness to be part of the unfolding harmony of life. The Neurology of Wholehearted Effort As a kind of neural validation, imaging studies reveal that in moments of wholehearted effort, there is increased connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex—the region responsible for emotional regulation—and the insula, which monitors bodily awareness. This means that surrendered effort literally harmonizes thought and feeling, creating what might be called a neurological symphony. In these states, time itself seems to soften. Effort and ease merge. The boundary between the doer and the doing begins to dissolve, and we experience what mystics have long described as unity: the seamless flow in which action, awareness, and presence become one. Neuroplasticity in Motion In essence, this is neuroplasticity in action. Each new beginning sends a small electrical signal through the prefrontal cortex, quietly strengthening the pathways of intuitive understanding. Even in moments of weakness, the brain begins remembering strength. Even when a certain part of the ordinary mind generates doubts, the neurons keep learning hope. That’s how transformation really happens through faithful and surrendered repetition of meaningful effort. The Quiet Joy of Service And over time, we begin to understand that serving the highest does not require heroism. More often, it reveals itself in small, unseen acts of kindness, in quiet endurance, or in the patient willingness to keep learning. In those humble moments, the joy Cousteau spoke of—the joy of service—rises like a tide. It is the joy of knowing that life itself is the master artist, and we can be the masterpiece. For when we stop trying to control the painting and instead give ourselves wholly to each stroke, the brush moves through us with grace. Effort becomes art, and service becomes beauty in motion. Love in Motion So if you’d like, consider this larger understanding — drawn from Universal Wisdom and now validated by modern brain science: real service is higher love in motion. Every breath that reaches for harmony, every attempt to mend what is broken, every act that restores humanity, is all part of a greater intelligence continuously unfolding through us. When we make our efforts with conscious awareness, we become conduits for grace. And even if the outer world never notices, the inner universe expands just the same — because nothing is ever lost wherever love is expressed through our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. Closing Well, this has been a lot to digest, so let’s end the episode here. As always, keep your eyes, your mind, and your heart open — and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/38606675

EP 121 - Drinking a One-Two Punch 10/21/2025

EP 121 - Drinking a One-Two Punch Drinking a One-Two Punch In an earlier episode, I mentioned that between the ages of five and eight, my older brother used to take me to the Saturday afternoon matinees at a large movie theatre near our home in Northeast Philadelphia. Those outings were magical — the darkened theatre, the smell of popcorn, and the giant screen that opened windows to worlds far beyond my own. As I shared before, I saw some of the great science fiction classics of the 1950s, films that made an indelible impression on my young mind — impressions that, in some ways, have stayed with me ever since. In that earlier episode, we explored Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a film that warned of a future where human beings had become emotionless replicas — walking robots in human form. In this episode, we’ll turn our attention to two other remarkable science fiction classics that touched me on a deep, existential level. The first is The Day the Earth Stood Still — a film that offered a profound vision of the power of human choice in the effort of our survival. The second is The Incredible Shrinking Man — a film that took me inward, toward the mystery of identity, consciousness, and what existence really means. The Day the Earth Stood Still The Day the Earth Stood Still opens in Washington, D.C., where a flying saucer lands on the National Mall, instantly drawing the attention of both the military and the public. From the ship emerges a calm, human-like visitor named Klaatu, who announces that he has come in peace, bearing a message to aid humanity. But when he reaches into his suit and pulls out a small, unfamiliar device, a nervous soldier panics and fires his rifle, wounding him. In that instant, a towering robot named Gort steps out of the ship and begins to disintegrate the soldiers’ weapons with a blinding energy ray. The chaos halts only when Klaatu, wounded but composed, commands Gort to stop. He then explains that the device he was holding had been a gift intended for the President of the United States — a symbol of peace, not threat. Klaatu Among Humans Klaatu is rushed to Walter Reed Army Hospital, where he requests an audience with the world’s leaders to deliver an urgent message. But the atmosphere of Cold War paranoia makes cooperation impossible. Frustrated by political barriers, Klaatu escapes the hospital and disguises himself as an ordinary man named “Mr. Carpenter.” He rents a room in a boarding house, where he befriends a young widow, Helen Benson, and her curious son, Bobby. Through his time with them — especially his friendship with Bobby — Klaatu experiences the rhythms of ordinary American life: simple kindness, curiosity, and fear. Eventually, he meets the brilliant Professor Barnhardt, a scientist modeled after Albert Einstein, who recognizes Klaatu’s sincerity and agrees to help gather the world’s leading scientific minds. Demonstration of Power To prove the seriousness of his mission, Klaatu arranges a global demonstration. At precisely noon, all electrical power across the planet ceases for thirty minutes. Lights go dark, cars stall, machinery grinds to a halt — the world itself seems to stop. Only essential systems like hospitals and airplanes in flight remain untouched. For half an hour, the human race stands still, witnessing a power far beyond its own. Conflict and Revelation Despite his peaceful purpose, Klaatu is relentlessly hunted by the military, who see him as a threat. When he tries to return to his spaceship, soldiers open fire, gravely wounding him. But before this, he had given Helen specific instructions: if anything happens to him, she must go to Gort and say the words — “Klaatu barada nikto.” Helen bravely delivers the message. Gort obeys, retrieves Klaatu’s body, and revives him using alien technology. When Klaatu awakens, he tells Helen that his revival may be temporary — for only the Divine Power, not science, holds true authority over life and death. Final Warning In the film’s climactic moment, Klaatu addresses the assembled scientists, revealing the full purpose of his visit. His people, he explains, monitor planets across the galaxy. Earth’s combination of nuclear weapons and emerging rocket technology has made it a danger not only to itself but to all intelligent life. Klaatu’s civilization lives in peace — but that peace is maintained by an interstellar police force of powerful robots like Gort. Any planet that threatens the balance of life will face destruction. Then he delivers his unforgettable warning: “The decision rests with you. We shall be waiting for your answer. The choice is simple — join us and live in peace, or pursue your present reckless course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer.” With that, Klaatu bids farewell, boards his spacecraft with Gort, and departs into the heavens — leaving humanity to decide its fate. Even though I was still just a little kid, I could barely move at the end of that movie. I remember sitting there, completely still, deeply shaken by the realization that we — the human race — are actually a very primitive species, and that there may exist an intelligence in the universe far more advanced and powerful than our own. Of course, the most unforgettable moment, was when Klaatu demonstrates his power by literally stopping all electricity on Earth for thirty minutes. Trains grind to a halt, factories fall silent, cars stall in the streets, and even wristwatches freeze in time. In that single moment, the entire world is brought to its knees, forced to experience its utter helplessness before a power infinitely greater — and yet, astonishingly, not malevolent, but filled with wisdom and compassion. Throughout the story, human beings are shown as anxious and paranoid, their decisions shaped by fear and greed. The aliens, by contrast, are calm, wise, and profoundly compassionate — beings who have long transcended the primitive impulses that still dominate us. Beneath the surface of the film runs a clear message: we are not the ultimate masters we imagine ourselves to be. And humanity is in critical need of a vast expansion of consciousness. Perhaps the wisest response to such a revelation is not more fear or aggression, but the openness that comes from true humility — the humility to listen, to learn, and to evolve. For this unknown force has shown us that it holds complete power over us, and yet it extends a hand of understanding. Its message could not be clearer — simple, urgent, and eternal: Evolve… or die. So, this brings us to the second film in today’s episode, The Incredible Shrinking Man, which, to quote old hippie parlance, really did a major number on my head. Opening and Setup Scott Carey, a happily married, ordinary man, is vacationing on a boat with his wife, Louise. While sunbathing, he is suddenly enveloped by a strange, mist-like cloud. Six months later, he begins to feel unwell and notices his clothes fitting loosely. Soon, he realizes he is actually shrinking. Medical tests confirm that exposure to a combination of radioactive fallout and insecticide has altered his cellular structure, causing his body to continuously diminish in scale. Public Curiosity and Growing Despair As Scott becomes smaller, he loses his job and, eventually, his confidence. He becomes a media spectacle, dubbed “The Incredible Shrinking Man” by the press. His humiliation and helplessness deepen with every inch he loses. Though Louise still loves him deeply, their relationship grows increasingly strained as he withdraws emotionally. When he befriends Clarice, a kind-hearted circus performer with dwarfism, he finds brief solace and understanding — someone who truly empathizes with his plight. But that comfort vanishes when he realizes he is shrinking even smaller than her, confirming that his condition is unstoppable. Life in the Dollhouse Eventually, Scott becomes only a few inches tall and is forced to live in a dollhouse. Louise continues to care for him tenderly, but tragedy strikes when she steps out of the house, leaving him vulnerable. Their cat attacks, and in a frantic struggle for survival, Scott narrowly escapes — only to be knocked into the basement, where he is presumed dead. The Basement Odyssey Trapped in the basement and now only fractions of an inch tall, Scott begins a desperate struggle for survival. The familiar surroundings of his home transform into an immense and hostile wilderness. He faces epic battles against a giant spider, treacherous climbs over towering obstacles, and a constant search for crumbs of food and droplets of water. These scenes are both terrifying and deeply symbolic: Scott must rediscover his will to live in a world that continually threatens his existence. Existential Revelation As he continues to shrink beyond visible size, Scott experiences a profound spiritual awakening. He realizes that, though he is becoming infinitely small, he is still part of the infinite itself — connected to all creation. His fear dissolves into awe. He looks up at the stars and understands that size and scale are irrelevant in the cosmic order. And then he expresses his realization of the ultimate truth: “To God, there is no zero. I still exist.” Themes and Legacy When I first saw The Incredible Shrinking Man at around age eight, the experience was life-altering — though I was far too young to understand it intellectually. All I knew was that something vast and wordless had opened inside me. I didn’t yet grasp its meaning; I simply felt it. Now, after many decades of personal growth and reflection, the film’s message has come much more into focus. At its core, The Incredible Shrinking Man is a meditation on human vulnerability and ultimate transcendence. It begins as science fiction but ends as metaphysics — a journey from disintegration and despair to the realization of unity with the infinite. Its closing message is both humbling and exalting: that meaning endures even after form disappears. Beneath its pulp title and mid-1950s imagery lies a profoundly spiritual story about surrender, humility, and rediscovery — the timeless truth that even in the smallest particle of existence, the whole of creation still lives and breathes. Let’s take a quick look at some of its deeper foundations. 1. The Fall of the Modern Everyman Scott Carey begins as the quintessential postwar American male — successful, confident, rational, and in control. But his sudden exposure to a mysterious radioactive mist destabilizes everything he relies upon. What follows is not merely a biological crisis but a metaphysical one. His physical shrinking mirrors the collapse of the ego — the gradual erosion of all external definitions of self: status, power, sexuality, and ultimately, even visibility itself. In many spiritual traditions, this marks the first stage of awakening: the unmaking of identity. The process can be terrifying, for it strips away everything that seems to guarantee one’s existence. In this light, Scott’s shrinking becomes a symbolic descent — the unraveling of the false self that must precede illumination. 2. The Basement as the Underworld When Scott falls into the basement, he has crossed into the mythic underworld — the inner realm where the soul confronts death and transformation. The ordinary objects surrounding him — spiders, matchsticks, droplets of water — are transformed into archetypes of the forces that test endurance and faith. Alone and unseen, he learns to survive not through domination but through adaptability, humility, and reverence for life in all its forms. Each confrontation with danger becomes an initiation. The basement is not a hell of punishment but a monastery of awakening, where the noise of the world falls away and consciousness begins to sense its unity with the Infinite. 3. The Vanishing Point and the Infinite As Scott continues to shrink, the story turns ever inward. The scale of his physical world expands into the scale of cosmic awareness. Matter, space, and spirit dissolve into a single continuum. His final revelation — that to God there is no zero — is a moment of pure, non-dualistic insight. He understands that although everything external is, by nature, impermanent, existence itself is indestructible; even the smallest particle contains the totality of being. This realization echoes the mystical experiences described by saints and sages across the ages: the Buddhist awakening to emptiness as fullness, the Sufi union with the Beloved, the Christian mystic’s merging with divine light. What vanishes is not life, but the illusion of separateness. 4. A Science-Fiction Upanishad In its closing moments, the film transcends genre entirely. Scott’s voice — serene and wonder-struck — becomes that of one who has passed through the dark night of the soul and emerged into awareness of the infinite. The stars above him mirror the subatomic worlds below, revealing the same pattern in every scale. He is no longer shrinking in the human sense but expanding into boundless consciousness. This is why the ending feels paradoxically uplifting: Scott disappears physically, yet spiritually he is reborn. His final words echo the timeless insight of the mystics — that what is eternal has no dependency on what is external. One rises and falls. The other was, is, and always will be. 5. The Lesson for the Modern Mind When I first saw The Incredible Shrinking Man, I had no idea what I was truly witnessing. Yet even as a child, I felt something profoundly stirring within me — something I could not name but would spend decades watching it unfold. Viewed through the lens of our own age, the film remains a radical challenge to the modern cult of control. It reminds us that meaning is not achieved by conquering the universe but by awakening to our unity with the power behind it. Scott’s journey invites us to recognize that the smallest life, the faintest breath, participates equally in the infinite. The film closes not with fear but with awe. It whispers what every true mystic has discovered: that when the external self dissolves, the soul begins to expand — and, incredibly, the Infinite knowingly smiles behind it all, welcoming us home. So I had, in fact, seen two remarkable films with two powerful messages. In the first, The Day the Earth Stood Still, we were shown that we human beings are not the ultimate power in the universe — far from it. Yet within our limitations lies the capacity, and the choice, to evolve to the next level of awareness… or to face the bitter consequences of refusing to grow. And in The Incredible Shrinking Man, we are offered the counterpoint: even if we lose everything, there remains within us an indestructible identity — our connection to the infinite consciousness behind all creation. So even though you may lose everything, in reality, you have merged with the great essence of all there is. Well, that’s quite a lot to digest, so let’s let this be the end of today’s episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open — and let’s get together again in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/38606630

EP 120 - Views From An Elevated Perspective (Reprise) 10/14/2025

EP 120 - Views From An Elevated Perspective (Reprise) This is the final episode in our three-part series on the life and teachings of Walter Russell, presented in connection with our upcoming project – The NeuroHarmonic Method. Born into extremely disadvantaged circumstances and with no formal education beyond the fourth grade, Russell nevertheless achieved so much that Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, once remarked that it would take seven lifetimes of masterful effort to equal his accomplishments. Over the years, admirers have often described him as a kind of modern Leonardo da Vinci—a self-taught genius whose creativity spanned art, science, philosophy and much more. Russell himself always emphasized that the only way he had accomplished so much was by tapping into the indwelling God presence within. He taught that this same source of intelligence is available to every human being. The purpose of the NeuroHarmonic Method is to provide everyday people with practical understandings and techniques to uncover and activate the higher dimensions of their own inner intelligence. In this episode, we’ll explore three key elements of Russell’s perspective that are not only fascinating, but potentially transformative as you continue on your own journey to awaken the highest and best within yourself. Enjoy the episode. Episode 42 – Views From An Elevated Perspective This is the third episode about Walter Russell, one of the most accomplished people in American history. Episode 40, called Self-Bestowed Genius, gave an overview of Russell’s life including some of his major accomplishments. It also described the incredible claim that Russel made that he was in touch with an infinite fountain of wisdom within himself that was the source of all his success in life. He also said that the same intelligence is within every human being. The episode that followed, called the Five Laws of Success, presented Russell’s five key elements on how we can tap into that intelligence to help elevate our lives. Those five elements were humility, reverence, inspiration, deep purpose and joy. Now, although his accomplishments were remarkable in their own right, this multi-millionaire, internationally acknowledged master of drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, business and philosophy had dropped out of school after the fourth grade, and had accomplished all of it with no real education, just by tapping into this source of inner wisdom. It was hard to believe, but as he always said, his life spoke for itself. Following his death in 1962, he left behind teachings on many different topics. As I researched them, much of it was over my head. But there are three key points that I found particularly fascinating and I thought I’d pass them along so you can give them some consideration and see if they do anything for you. The first one concerns an ability we have in our consciousness that I had never considered before. Russell was very fond of the idea of something he called decentration which, he taught, was the opposite of concentration. Now, we all know what it means to concentrate on something. You focus your attention on it and the more you concentrate on it, the more it gets into your mentality. And importantly, a lot of times, we have problems letting go of it, especially if it’s charged with troubling emotions like anger, guilt and fear. Holding on to negativity is far more prevalent than it may seem. According to current research, we each think about 50,000 thoughts a day, with a large percentage of them being negative and recurring, which means that we keep churning over the same negative thoughts and feelings again and again. But Russell said we have the power to decentrate them. This power is a natural part of our mind, but we haven’t been taught to develop it. With concentration, you focus your attention on something and give it your inner energy. With decentration, you do just the opposite. You dissipate your energy and remove your attention from the object. He said you don’t have to try to change the thoughts and emotions. If we have nothing further to gain from examining them, we can just choose to remove our energy from them and they will disappear on their own. After all, the only reason these things exist in our mind is because we are giving them energy. It’s a very simple fact, but it can be easily missed. He said it takes some practice, but like anything else, if we keep trying, we can get good at it. To start with, if a thought or idea is bothering you, just give yourself a verbal command like, “I decentrate that thought.” Or “I decentrate that feeling.” And then let your mind picture withdrawing your energy from it and see it dissipating, like mist in the sunlight. It seemed like Russell had mastered the process. He said he could decentrate to zero while he was in the middle of Grand Central Station, meaning he could give zero energy to thought and feeling while being in the middle of a crowd. It may appear to be a tall order, but another thing Russell always said was, “If I can do it, you can.” You may want to give it a try. After many years, I think I may be starting to get the hang of it. So that’s the first point from Russell that I wanted to bring up. The second one is about this inner intelligence that Russell claimed was the source of all his incredible accomplishments. He said it is within each one of us, and it isn’t the higher side of our intelligence, or the part of us that is in touch with the higher spheres or some angelic realm of wisdom. It’s not the genius part of ourselves or anything like that. He said that what is inside of us is God Almighty. Period. Full-blast, full-power. God. At first, I found it surprising, then I realized that the idea forms the basis of most religions in the world. Many traditions speak of the Indwelling God Presence. For instance, the 15th century Indian poet Kabir used the image of the ocean and a drop of water to illustrate the point. God would be the ocean, and each individual would be a drop. Kabir said that the drop is in the ocean, everyone knows this. But the ocean is also in the drop and very few know this. So, we all have God within. But according to Russell, as well as a myriad of other teachers and masters over the ages, if you want to get close to it, you have to surrender to it. And according to them, the more you do, you start to realize that you can merge with it, which, they say, is kind of the point of the whole thing. In his first law of success, humility, Russell put it this way, “I found that to achieve greatness one had to go only one inch beyond mediocrity. But that one inch is so hard to go, that only those who become aware of God in them can make the grade, for no one can achieve that one inch alone.” And he added, “The ‘I’ must be forgotten, one must not be the part; he must be the whole. Until one learns to lose oneself, he cannot find himself.” In that vein, when someone asked him, “Why can’t I do the things that you can do?” He replied, “The only difference is that I do everything for God and you do everything for your body.” It reminds me of something I once read about Parmahansa Yogananda, the great yogi from India who spent many years in the west, elevating the lives of millions of people. until he passed away in Los Angeles in 1952. In response to someone who kept questioning him about his personal life, he once said, “Oh, I killed Yogananda long ago. Only God dwells in this temple now.” It’s always humbling for me whenever I run across expressions like these. The idea of only God dwelling in my temple seems almost unimaginable. With my relentless mind generating a constant stream of random thoughts, I have so much garbage in there, I feel like the line in one of Bob Dylan’s songs, “If my thought dreams could be seen, they’d probably put my head in a guillotine.” With that summary of the state of my inner world, that ends the second point of Russell’s that I wanted to bring up. The last one is pretty incredible. It’s about his vision of our future and it runs pretty deep. In 1921, he coined the term, “The New Age.” Apparently, he was the first person to use it. He said that we were now moving into the next stage of our evolution, a new age which he called, “Epoch Three of Humanity.” So, what were Epoch One and Epoch Two? According to certain theories of brain evolution, our brain didn’t start out the way it is now. In the beginning, it was much smaller and we didn’t have the ability to think rational thoughts or create language. We had instincts, we had emotional feelings, we were bonded to our family and our tribe, but we couldn’t think. According to Russell, this state of being was Epoch One. Then, for reasons that remain unknown, some major evolutionary changes took place and our brain radically transformed. It got about a third larger with much more fat, and we could begin to think rationally. We could think If-Then. If I do this, then that will happen. Like I know that the sun comes up on this side of the cave, so if I sleep here, then I’ll be warmer in the morning. Soon after, language began to develop, eventually followed by writing. Before this evolutionary change, the only form of communication we had was just glorified grunting. This ability to think rational thought began Epoch Two of humanity, which went from pre-historic caveman days until now. Of course, rational thought changed our whole world and our lives in it. Every advancement from the wheel to the computer came from it. But critically, one primary factor hasn’t changed at all, and that is, survival. We’re still struggling to survive, living by the law of the jungle to a large degree. Kill or be killed. Winner takes all. Although it may not be clearly apparent, this fear-based concept of life is at the root of all the greed and lust for power that has dominated human history for all this time. All of this misery, generated by all of our conflicted concepts, theories and opinions, is all based on fear. But, according to Russell, in Epoch Three of humanity, it is all going to change. It’s probably not going to be an overnight transition. It may take some time, maybe even a century or two, and even though it may seem quite dark, supposedly, this is just the darkness before the dawn. So, what are the implications of this new epoch? What does it mean? According to Russell, it means nothing less than a new kind of human being living a new kind of life on earth. Humans will eventually be liberated from a life of drudgery. With the right intentions, technology will evolve to the point where all of the great resources of planet earth will be properly harvested for the benefit of all. It might be hard to understand how bountiful the earth really is, but here are a few quick facts to consider. As far as overcrowding is concerned, if you took every single human being on the planet and put them all together with one yard between them, they wouldn’t even fill up the state of Rhode Island. So, the entire population of the world could fit into the smallest state in America. As far as hunger is concerned, more than 50 percent of all the food presently harvested on earth is thrown out every year, which means that human hunger isn’t the result of there not being enough food for everyone. It’s the result of misdirected and poorly coordinated human activity. And when it comes to energy, it is estimated that there is enough power in the amount of sunlight that hits one acre of land in one hour to provide all the electricity to the city of Chicago for a whole year. So, enough said about enlightened technology, what about the human? This is where it gets really encouraging. Russell said our destiny is to emerge from this fear-based, survival-oriented, dog-eat-dog existence into a much higher level of intelligence, whose foundations will be based on each individual’s constant, conscious relationship with that divine energy that is within each one of us or God Almighty, as Russell called it. Life will be like heaven on earth and if we could see the humans of 100 or 200 years from now, they would appear God-like to us, manifesting all the highest human characteristics. Wisdom, love, compassion and kindness, along with all the other better angels of our nature, would be part of our everyday way of life. Okay, maybe it sounds too good to be true. But hey, I didn’t come up with this stuff, Russell did. And supposedly he was getting it from the source of wisdom within him that was the source of all his amazing achievements. So even though it may sound like a great big piece of pie in the sky, I’m sticking with it. I’d love to imagine that 200 years from now, someone may be reading or listening to this information that came from this primitive man who was living in these primitive times. And that person would be thinking how obvious all of it was. Of course, all of these great things were going to come true. It had to happen and couldn’t have been any other way. How obvious! Wishful thinking? Who knows? But no matter what may be happening in the world around us, we’re still entitled to our hopes and dreams and as the saying goes, “It takes a dreamer to make a dream come true.” Well, that’s the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/38323705

EP 119 - The Five Laws of Success (Reprise) 10/07/2025

EP 119 - The Five Laws of Success (Reprise) In this episode, we continue exploring Walter Russell in the context of the upcoming release of the NeuroHarmonic Method. Once again, the key point is that while Russell—who passed away in 1963 and is still regarded as one of the most accomplished figures in history, was a fourth grade drop out who always gave full credit for his success to his ability to tap into the intelligence of the higher power within him. When I first began researching Russell several years ago, I came across a book called The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe. Its author had spent considerable time interviewing Russell, who explained that he lived by five basic rules for success. The author then offered Russell’s explanation about each one of them. What struck me when I first read them was how different they were from the usual advice about achieving success that I had read. They didn’t emphasize hard work, setting goals, or carefully planning a strategy. Instead, Russell focused on cultivating inner states of consciousness that align us with the higher intelligence within us. He believed that accessing these inner conditions naturally lead us our best selves. Now, I had long been aware of the idea that there is an incredible inner world within us—one we can uncover through practice and awareness. But I had never considered that this inner world might be essential to achieving outward success. Somehow, those two things had always seemed separate to me. But Russell insisted the opposite: success begins inwardly, not outwardly. He taught that if you look reverently within, toward your higher inner self, you will be amazed by what you discover. And one of his principles that surprised me even more, was that he emphasized joy. He said joy is not optional but essential to our success, because it replenishes consciousness and reveals our natural state. This is a far cry from the “head down, work harder, push to the goal” approach that most of us are taught in school. With all this in mind, let’s dive into this episode, and explore Walter Russell’s Five Laws of Success. The Five Laws of Success In the last episode, I discussed some of the research I’ve done on Walter Russell. As I mentioned, a chance encounter with a stranger led me down this unexpected path. I had never heard of Russell before and I was completely amazed by what I found. Not only was he one of the most accomplished people in American history, a self-made millionaire, master painter, sculptor and musician, architect and builder, friend of presidents and kings, as well as scientist and teacher, but incredibly, he was a fourth-grade drop-out, with almost no formal education. And if that wasn’t remarkable enough Russell claimed that due to some extraordinary events he had experienced, he was able to tap into the intelligence that powers the entire universe. He said not only was this intelligence within him, he also claimed that it’s inside everyone of us, and we all have the potential to tap into it like he could. While enticing, I found these ideas to be pretty incredible, but as he used to say, his life spoke for itself. In that regard, Thomas J. Watson, a close friend and associate, and the legendary founder of IBM, said that Russell had achieved seven lifetimes worth of accomplishments and that he had “reduced the philosophy of thought power to a science, and demonstrated that science in his own achievements.” One of the books I had purchased about Russell called “The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe’ included a section in which he listed what he called his Five Laws of Success. I found them to be intriguingly different from what I had expected. Russell didn’t stress hard work, long hours, detailed planning or setting goal benchmarks. Instead, he stressed the power of nurturing certain inner states of consciousness that naturally expand our ability to focus on the higher levels of intelligence that are within our awareness. These inner states help bring about the best in us. And the more we align with the best parts of ourselves, the more we naturally do our best, and ultimately become our best. So here is a very brief overview of Walter Russell’s Five Laws of Success. It’s pretty simple, but I’ve read it hundreds of times, and I still don’t think I’m really getting it. The first Law of Success is humility. When it comes to true success in any area of life, it all starts and it all ends, with humility. According to Russell, nothing of real value, nothing that brings authentic, lasting fulfillment, can be done without a humble understanding of our true position in the larger scheme of things. We need to truly understand that we are each 100% dependent on our breath to survive. We simply cannot live without it. And no one, no matter their position or accomplishments, has any control over it whatsoever. Life comes to each one of us by its own power which is, and probably will remain, far beyond human comprehension. And, according to Russel, we need to surrender to that power to accomplish anything of real significance, indeed be truly fulfilled. He said, “Early in life I found that to achieve greatness one had to go only one inch beyond mediocrity, but that one inch is so hard to go, that only those who become aware of God in them can make the grade, for no one can achieve that one inch alone.” According to him, our own individual awareness is actually just a part of the larger universal intelligence. “The ‘I’ must be forgotten,” he said. “One must not be the part; he must be the whole. Until one learns to lose oneself, he cannot find himself.” From this humble awareness, a natural desire to help others begins to flow, increasing in power, continually elevating the consciousness to higher perspectives. Russell said he often felt like he was “placing himself within all others through acts of thoughtfulness and service.” So, the first step is authentic humility. There is no substitution for it. Although our miniature ego may always be around, expressing its miniature opinions, we have to surrender to the highest. Afterall, as he observed, “No great man has ever wise-cracked his way into greatness.” The second Law of Success is reverence. He used to say that when he was entering his workplace, he felt like he was entering a cathedral. He once put it this way, “I learned to cross the threshold of my studio with reverence, as though I were entering a shrine, set apart for me to become co-creator with the Universal Thinker of all things.” When I first read this, it was a completely new idea to me because it was so radically different from any concept I had about work. Like most other products of the Puritan Work Ethic which was the foundation of the American education of my early years, my idea of work is that it was a form of drudgery, something you had to do. Like I had been consigned to a life of hard labor. This was like night and day, saying that you can experience a grateful reverence for the opportunity to apply your intelligence in joyful service to the greater good. Russell said that there is a hidden gem within every action we make, and we can uncover it by becoming conscious of the innate greatness of life itself. This has vast implications. As he said, “If you look reverently in the inward direction toward your inner self, you will be amazed at what you will find. If you are alone long enough to get thoroughly acquainted with yourself, you will hear whisperings from the universal source of all consciousness which will inspire you.... You will soon find yourself using the cosmic forces. instead of working blindly in the dark.” The third Law of Success is Inspiration. We all know that acting from inspiration represents an ideal state of being. We say that we saw an inspiring movie or play or someone sang an inspired song or gave an inspired speech. Or we saw an inspiring painting or sculpture. There are thousands of examples. But, in our way of thinking, inspiration is something that we stumble upon every once in a while. It doesn’t have to be this way, according to Russell. He said that inspiration is always present within our consciousness, we just ignore it. We haven’t been taught to value it, so, we just take it on a hit or miss basis. But he said we can do much better than that. “Inspiration is that deep awareness of the consciousness of Being, which differentiates the genius or mystic from the being of average intelligence,” he said. “It is the language of light, through which man and God inter-communicate. Inspiration comes only to those who seek it with humility toward their own achievements and reverence toward the achievements of God.” He taught that through humility and true inspiration, a higher access to knowledge can be gained. “Knowledge is yours for the asking,” he said. “You have but to plug into it. You do not have to learn anything. In fact, all you have to do is recollect it, or recognize it, for you already have it as your inheritance.” I guess it sounds easy enough. The fourth law of success is Deep Purpose. According to Russell, you have to learn how to focus your energy exclusively on completing your purpose. As he put it, “You have to gather your energy together, conserving it and insulating it from dissipation in every direction other than that of your purpose.” But he also took it a little deeper. According to him, we have two parts of our consciousness, one part is connected to the finite world and the other part is connected to the Infinite. And to produce a truly great accomplishment, we need to be conscious of both. Our finite purpose is the obvious goal that we wish to accomplish. But along with it, our infinite purpose is to continually grow in consciousness where we can be living and expressing what he called, “The Life Triumphant.” This is the state of being where you are giving out far more than you are receiving. He said a fruit tree in full bloom was a perfect example. The tree is taking in what it needs in terms of nutrients from the soil, water and air. But it is giving out far more than it is taking in, constantly supplying beautiful, nutritious, delicious fruits, with each bearing seeds that can be the source of more trees, indeed of entire forests. This is the ultimate goal of living, to embody what he called the divine plan behind creation, which is the constant multiplication of giving. This is the law of nature. But sometimes humans get out of tune, producing creations that are not in harmony with the big picture. And nature doesn’t go along with it. As he warned, “You may command nature only to the extent that you are willing to obey her.” The final Law of Success is Joy. Russell had a unique point of view regarding the importance of happiness and joy. He said inner joy carries a power in it that replenishes our consciousness in a way that is unmatched because the very essence of our being is actually happiness. Joy is our natural state. And we function best when we are in it. That’s when we are truly successful. It surprised me to hear that he put such an emphasis on being happy. I hadn’t been expecting it. But Russell said it was more than just being happy. He said he was ecstatic. “By ecstatic I mean that rare mental condition which makes an inspired man so supremely happy in his mental concentration, that he is practically unaware of everything which goes on around him extraneous to his purpose, but is keenly and vitally aware of everything pertaining to his purpose.” He went on to say that this ecstatic state was common among great artists and he described it this way, “Inspiration in man is accompanied by an intense mental ecstasy which is characteristic of all who become intensely conscious of their closeness to God. The great composers, sculptors, painters, inventors and planners of all time were in such an ecstatic condition... By ecstasy I mean inner joyousness, and by inner joyousness I mean those inspirational fires which burn within the consciousness of great geniuses.” It may not be obvious on the outside, but as he said, “There is nothing dramatic about it. But there is some subtle light in the eye of the inspired one, or some even more subtle quiet emanation which surrounds the inspired thinker, which tells you that you are in the presence of one who has bridged the gap which separates the mundane world from the world of spirit.” So that’s a quick overview of Russell’s Five Laws of Success. It seemed to me that they were designed to tune your consciousness to its highest levels of intelligence. Because our conscious intelligence is the source of all our thinking, emotions, intuition and ultimately decision making, it is the very compass that we use to navigate our way through life. And in that regard, what could be more valuable than tuning your consciousness to the Infinite Intelligence? It reminds me of a famous quote from Lincoln, who spent a number of years in his youth as a woodsman, chopping down trees. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree,” he said. “And I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Again, here is something that makes perfect sense, but you would hardly ever think of it, unless, of course, you actually knew what you’re doing. So, to me Walter Russell’s Five Laws of Success are pretty amazing, as surprising as they are enlightening. But the obvious question is, of course, do they work? And for me the obvious answer is – try them and see. The upside potential seems so great, and I don’t see a downside. Maybe we won’t have the kind of results that Russell had. Maybe we won’t suddenly become concert pianists, great painters, sculptors or scientific geniuses, but I always feel like if something makes me a truly better person, even by a fraction of a percentage point, it’s still a major win. Now not to get over mercenary here, but one half of one percent of ten billion dollars is still fifty million. And it might be tight, but I think I could get by on that. Well anyway, that’s the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/38323635

EP 118 - Self Bestowed Genius (Reprise) 09/30/2025

EP 118 - Self Bestowed Genius (Reprise) As we continue shaping the introduction to NeuroHarmonics, we’re presenting a three-part series on Walter Russell. We touched on his work a few years ago, but we’re returning to it now because his life so clearly illustrates what our method is all about. Since NeuroHarmonics blends timeless human wisdom with insights from modern brain science, we’ll begin with some core wisdom principles and then see how Russell’s extraordinary life embodied one of its deepest truths. Here are a few key teachings to consider: 1. There is an infinite intelligence behind all creation—call it God, or any name you like. 2. Our understanding of this power is always limited by our finite minds. 3. This remarkable power lives within every person and can be called the “Indwelling God Presence.” 4. Because it is always within us, we can choose to uncover it and connect our awareness to it. 5. Focusing on it makes us better human beings and greatly increases our inner fulfillment and happiness. Now, how does Walter Russell fit in? Born in poverty in Boston in 1873, he left school after the fourth grade. Yet he became a world-renowned painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, and spiritual philosopher. He was also a multi-millionaire New Yorker and a close friend of presidents, kings, poets, and artists. So how did this disadvantaged fourth-grade dropout achieve such heights? Amazingly, Russell claimed it was simple: he tapped into the Indwelling God Presence within him, which was the source of his wisdom, creativity, and initiative. This first episode in our Walter Russell series offers the amusing story of how I first heard of him, along with an overview of his extraordinary life. As it unfolds, keep in mind that he credited everything to the Indwelling Presence he contacted within himself. And most important of all, he insisted that anyone could do the same. In his view, the question was never if it works—the only question was whether you will try it. Enjoy the story… Episode 40 – Self-Bestowed Genius I have found that every once in a while, some unexpected information can come from an unexpected source and make an unexpectedly major change in your outlook on life. Something like that happened to me a few years ago. I was in the pool behind our condo and a stranger came over and introduced himself to me. We struck up an informal conversation with one random topic casually leading to another. At one point he asked me if I had ever heard of someone named Walter Russell. I drew a complete blank. The name meant nothing to me at all and I said so. Looking surprised at my ignorance, he launched into a string of hyperboles about this person I’d never heard of - that he was one of the most multi-talented people who ever lived, that his rags-to-riches story was one of the classics in American History, that he was a teacher of Consciousness Evolution, who claimed that we can all become geniuses if we want to and that Walter Cronkite had called him the “Leonardo DaVinci of our time,” when he announced his death on national TV in 1963. And on and on and on. Then, he said with a sly smile, that Walter Russell was so brilliant and so prolific that he made Benjamin Franklin look like a “schlepper.” Now, I’m pretty familiar with US history and culture, and I’ve been aware of Consciousness Evolution since the idea first caught my eye in the early 70s, and in all this time, I had never once heard of Walter Russell. So naturally, I was skeptical. After all, if this Russell guy was so great, how come I had never heard of him? The stranger’s looks didn’t help dispel my doubts either. He was obviously a bit “out there.” A not-quite-former hippie in his mid-sixties, it seemed like he had not-quite-returned from wherever it was that his last acid trip had dropped him off. And frankly, his Ben Franklin “schlepper” comment rubbed me the wrong way. Schlepper is a fairly nasty Yiddish term with a host of meanings, one more pejorative than the next. It’s basically a lazy dim-wit who can only perform menial tasks and can’t be trusted. Just your average dolt. Now, I have always been a huge fan of Franklin’s, and idea of applying the term to him just didn’t sit well with me. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the stranger in the pool did a perfect Groucho Marx impersonation. It turned out that he did Groucho impressions for a living, and he broke into a string of jokes that were actually pretty funny. Impersonation seemed like it was second nature to him. Then, he looked over to the far corner of the pool, rolled his eyes, sang “Hello, I must be going” and swam away. An instant later, he was playing Groucho to a few well-groomed ladies who had just come into the pool. It was a mildly amusing event at the pool during a pleasantly uneventful summer, and I made a lukewarm mental note to look this Walter Russell up someday. I jotted the name down, stuck it in a junk drawer and forgot about it. At least six months must have gone by before I stumbled on the note again. I was sort of killing time, which is something I’ve been known to be a master of, so I thought I’d do a quick Google search. I was expecting to find a few miniscule bits of information that I’d browse for a few moments, then move onto something else. But what I found really was something else and in a matter of seconds, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. And I don’t mean that as a figure of speech. What I mean is that I actually couldn’t believe what I was reading. It seemed preposterous, like it couldn’t possibly have been true. I had never seen anything quite like it before. Walter Russell had been a prominent 20th century figure, a self-made millionaire who lived in New York City and had a studio in Carnegie Hall. A master painter and sculptor, he had also started a large architect firm in the city and had been intimately involved with the construction and financing of seventeen significant buildings. He owned a stable of Arabian horses in Central Park and was a renown equestrian. He took up figure skating in his forties and won the US national championship against competitors in their twenties. And later in life, as he got involved in the study of chemistry, he helped upgrade the periodic table of elements. His name was always in the papers and he ran with quite a crowd - Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla and FDR, to name just a few. Not to mention his close friend Thomas J. Watson, Sr., who founded IBM. And yet not one person that I knew had ever heard of him. It was incredible. How could someone who had accomplished so much, in so many different fields, on such a grand scale, be so unknown? It didn’t make sense. After all, this wasn’t ancient history and it certainly didn’t happen in a vacuum. I was astounded and kept reading. Two books that were several decades old caught my eye – “The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe,” and “The Secret of Working Knowingly with God.” The titles surprised me. I didn’t see their connection to the subject matter I had been reading. I looked them up and the price was right, so I ordered them blind. When they came a few days later, it was immediately clear that this whole story ran much deeper than I thought. I was stunned by the books and couldn’t put them down. To begin to grasp the depth of the story, the first thing to understand is that Russell was basically uneducated. Born into a very poor family in Boston in 1871, his parents got him in a job in a grocery store when he was about 10 years old. To help support the family, he dropped out of school after the fourth grade and never went back. So, amazingly given all that he had accomplished, he had no college, no high school or even junior high. Yet, he went on to become one of the most accomplished people in history - a self-made millionaire, friend to presidents and kings, an internationally renowned painter, sculptor, musician, architect, scientist, sportsman, businessman, and master teacher. His resume was obviously well-documented and his vast accomplishments were completely verified. Although what he did was truly amazing, even more amazing was how he said he did it. According to him, from the time he was a young boy, he experienced a series of inner illuminations that continued throughout his entire life. And these inner illuminations tapped him into a vast storehouse of wisdom, indeed the wisdom of the universe. It all started when he was seven years old. He was playing marbles with some friends and suddenly, “Something tremendous happened to me, something indescribable, something so beautiful, so wonderful, a sort of complete blotting out of everything concerning the physical universe, concerning my body. “A great burst of changing colors – blue, violet, orange seemed to fill and pervade all space and me. I was swallowed up in it. Then that ceased and there was a blinding flash and I stood motionless.” He couldn’t function at all for several hours and it took him over a week to recover his normal consciousness. But he really wasn’t the same. In fact, he was never the same again. It happened to him again the following May. And then it happened every May for the rest of his life. Every seven years the episode would be particularly intense, lasting for several days at a time. Once, he was in the altered state, in tune with this universal intelligence for 39 days. Following each experience, he would find that he was different, as though his whole being had been elevated. Sublime understandings would crystallize in his mind. He seemed to have direct access to new levels of information. His existing talents would deepen or he would develop new ones. For example, he could play the piano at a young age, but following one of the episodes, he was suddenly able to write and play advanced musical compositions, with a depth of emotion and pathos that was extraordinary. Everyone noticed the changes and several of the formal pieces he composed were played by symphony orchestras throughout the world. The exact same thing happened with his skill as an artist. He had some talent and training, but it expanded exponentially after one of his episodes and he started churning out masterpieces. He soon became the artistic director of Colliers Magazine, and his series of pictures called, “The most beautiful children in America” won several awards. He drew a portrait of Teddy Roosevelt’s children that hung in the White House for a time. On another occasion, his talent as a sculptor manifested instantaneously. He created over fifty masterpieces including busts of Thomas Edison and Mark Twain that are breath-taking in their level of realism. Soon afterwards, in a completely different arena, he invented the concept of the co-op apartment in Manhattan and personally drew-up the first co-op lease in history, which his lawyer said was perfect in its legal detail. It was all so hard to believe, not to mention that it was all done by a fourth-grade dropout. But he said that he had been granted the ability to transcend his mind’s normal thought processes and tap directly into the intelligence of the universe which, he said, is all-knowing. This intelligence is divine in nature and is the home of all our noble human virtues including wisdom, love and compassion, according to him. He termed it the very life force which sustains us all and carries the genius of our consciousness on every plane - physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. Russell’s work output continued to explode, much of which required extreme precision. And his incredible achievements were acknowledged at the highest levels. For twelve consecutive years, he was the main trainer of the entire IBM sales force. Thomas J. Watson, the company’s Founder and President, said that Russell’s accomplishments were equal to seven lifetimes of achievement, all performed at peak levels of excellence. His life became an example of a most lofty ideal – that of being able to live in a state that he termed “ecstatic joy,” while remaining completely grounded and succeeding brilliantly in his life. According to him, this rarified state, where the inner and outer worlds are in complete harmony, is not only completely natural, it is the way we are meant to live. And he said that it doesn’t diminish with age. In fact, it increases. He was living proof. He remained in good health well into his old age, with his awareness fully intact, enjoying profound happiness and fulfillment. He finally passed away exactly on his 92nd birthday, and that was in 1963, when the average life expectancy for an American man was sixty-six! He always held that this genius intelligence exists within every single one of us and we are each capable of connecting with it exactly as he had. We can all become much greater than we think, but we have to make the decision to open up to it ourselves to it and connect with it in a way that is our own. “Many have asked if I could more specifically direct them how to kindle that spark of inner fire which illuminates the way to one’s self. That I cannot do,” he wrote. “I can merely point the way and tell you of its existence. You must then find it for yourself.” And he famously added, “Mediocrity is self-inflicted. Genius is self-bestowed.” Now if you’re like I was when I first got exposed to this story, with all of its implications, you’re probably pretty blown out. It’s a lot to absorb, on many levels. He left behind an enormous amount of material on the subject of consciousness evolution and expansion. His writings are vast and the subject matter is profound. A great place to start is with his “Five Laws of Success.” In the next episode, we’ll explore them and you may be surprised by how simple, natural and powerful they are. Like all of Russell’s teachings, they are meant to be practical. You just try them on for size and see how they fit. Well, that’s the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/38295310

EP 117 - The Culprit of the Unknown 09/23/2025

EP 117 - The Culprit of the Unknown As I mentioned in the previous episode, we are going to be looking into the foundations of the NeuroHarmonic Method, which we are continuing to prepare for its upcoming release. Again, a lot of personal growth insights are going to be presented to you, practical and uplifting ideas that you may find to be deeply valuable. In that light, let me take you back to something I came across many years ago, a powerful framework that continues to guide me to this day. It’s called the Four Quadrants of Knowledge. On the surface, it’s simple and easy to grasp, but its importance runs deep, especially when you get to the last quadrant. And while we all intuitively know these categories, we often take them for granted. Quadrant One Quadrant One is what you know that you know. If you own a car, you know what make and color it is, what the keys look like, how to start it and so on. You know where you live, if you have kids, and thousands of things like this. These are all part of the first category: what you know that you know. Easy enough. Quadrant Two Quadrant Two is what you know that you don’t know. If someone asked me to assist in a heart transplant surgery, I’d refuse because I know nothing about it and I know that I don’t know. Same thing with rebuilding a carburetor and countless other skills. This category is huge for all of us, and we’re all pretty clear about it. Of course, these two can be a little tricky because we have a tendency to trick ourselves, but that’s a different story. Quadrant Three Quadrant Three is what we know, but don’t realize that we know. This often shows up in the form of forgetting. You stumble across an old sweater in a drawer, one that used to be your favorite but you’d completely forgotten about. The knowledge was there, but buried. Sometimes this happens with skills we once practiced but let fall away, and so forth. Quadrant Four Quadrant Four is the most critical to understand, yet also the hardest to fully grasp. It is the realm of what we don’t know that we don’t know. This quadrant presents a major challenge, because it always remains in the domain of mystery — filled with both unseen opportunities and hidden dangers. We don’t need to dive too deeply into Quadrant Four just yet, because the rest of this episode will make its significance abundantly clear. So let’s begin. Every society, in its own time, has believed it was the most advanced ever. And in a way, that makes sense — we can look back and clearly see the history behind us, and we can measure how far we’ve come. But the future? That always remains in the unknown, and all we can do is speculate. And how big is Quadrant Four? How vast is the realm of what we don’t know that we don’t know? Well, the answer is obvious: we don’t know. A Glimpse Back in Time So, with all this in mind, let’s take a little trip back in time and see what appears to us. Imagine walking into the White House in the early 1830s. The floors are creaky and the rooms are still dimly lit with candles. It’s far from the glittering palace that exists in our collective imagination. But, for its time, it was astonishingly modern. In fact, it boasted something most Americans of that era could hardly dream of. It had running water. And not only that – hot running water. That’s right. The White House, in Andrew Jackson’s presidency, became one of the very first buildings in the world to enjoy plumbing on such a scale. By 1833, a spring at Franklin Square fed water through iron pipes, supplying reservoirs in the mansion. There was even a bathing room fitted with a cold bath, a shower, and—this was the marvel—a hot bath, heated by great copper boilers stoked with coal. The Astonishing Contrast Now it’s hard for us to grasp what a marvel this level of luxury truly was, but in the early 1830’s it was nothing less than astonishing. At the time, most Americans drew their water by hand—from wells, outdoor pumps, or streams—and lugged it in heavy buckets to their kitchens or washrooms. Heating that water meant chopping wood, tending a fire, and waiting as iron kettles slowly came to a boil. Even in wealthy homes, servants trudged up and down stairs with sloshing pails, and a single bath could take hours to prepare. Against this backdrop of labor and inconvenience, the sight of water flowing instantly through pipes—already heated and ready for use—seemed almost magical. It was not just a convenience but a symbol of modern progress, decades ahead of what ordinary families would experience in their daily lives. The Hidden Tragedy But with this, something strangely tragic unfolded in the White House over the next thirty years. A black shroud of grief descended upon it, as three unlikely deaths darkened its halls. And those deaths came about for one simple reason: the people of the time didn’t know what they didn’t know. You see, the spring that fed the White House pipes stood just a few blocks away from what was called a “night-soil dump” — a polite 19th-century phrase for a sewage pit. That’s right: a large amount of human waste was regularly dumped into a pool not far from the very spring that carried water into the White House. Before Germ Theory You may or may not realize that this time period was a good fifty years before the significant understanding of germ theory began to dawn on the world. In those days, people believed that bad odors — so-called “miasmas” — caused disease. The idea that invisible microbes in water could make someone sick wasn’t even remotely conceived of. So yes, the development of a running water system was real progress — but wisdom had not yet caught up with it. They simply didn’t know what they didn’t know. And the result began to take its toll, with three famous examples that stand out in history. Case One: William Henry Harrison At his inauguration in March of 1841, William Henry Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address in U.S. history — nearly two hours long in the raw March wind. For generations, history books told us that he caught pneumonia that day and died a month later. But recent medical historians see it differently. They point to clear signs of enteric fever — a typhoid-like illness consistent with sewage-contaminated water. In other words, Harrison was likely undone not by the cold weather, but by the White House plumbing itself. Case Two: Zachary Taylor Fast forward to July of 1850. President Zachary Taylor had just attended Fourth of July celebrations, where he enjoyed a bowl of cherries and a glass of iced milk. Within days, he fell violently ill. Newspapers of the time reported “cholera morbus” — a catch-all term for gastroenteritis. Taylor died within the week. While it’s impossible to prove with certainty, medical historians now believe his death also fits the pattern of a waterborne illness, consistent with the contaminated spring that supplied the White House. Case Three: Willie Lincoln Perhaps the most heartbreaking related event was the death of Willie Lincoln, the beloved 11-year-old son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. In February 1862, while the Civil War raged, Willie fell ill with typhoid fever. He lingered for weeks, weakening day by day, while his parents tended to him engulfed in agony and fear. He died in the White House on February 20. Doctors and historians agree: the likeliest culprit was the contaminated water. Once again, the very pipes that delivered incredible modern convenience carried the seeds of immense tragedy. Abraham Lincoln, wrestling with the fate of a nation, now had to wrestle with the loss of his beloved child as unthinkable grief was delivered by a seemingly advanced invention. The Lesson of Quadrant Four So, what does all this mean for us? Well, this brings us back to knowledge — especially the fourth quadrant: what you don’t know that you don’t know. The White House water story of the 1830s makes it painfully clear that technology without wisdom isn’t progress at all — it’s peril. And tragically, this is just one of countless examples throughout history where what people didn’t know cost them dearly. The Modern Parallel To take this to the next level, let’s draw a parallel to our modern world today. And let’s put a focus on our awareness, on the inner life of the human mind, which is truly a double-edged sword. Because while our mind has been the source of all the developments that have come into being to help elevate humanity, it has also been responsible for creating much of the misery that we suffer today. With all this in mind, here’s a key question: might we also be drinking contaminated water? From an environmental perspective, of course, that’s an urgent issue in its own right. But in this scenario, I’m not talking about what flows from our faucets. Contaminated Thought Water What I mean is the streams of thoughts and feelings that flow into our consciousness every single day. The rushing current of fear, anger, worry, resentment, self-doubt, and negativity — a polluted current we so often drink from without ever realizing its toxicity. Just as the 19th-century White House residents poured crystal-clear water into their cups, unaware of the microbes within, we pour “thought water” into ourselves every moment. It looks clear — it feels like simply “my mood,” or “just the way I am.” But this inner negativity carries powerful pathogens of a very different kind. The Physiological Cost Modern brain science reveals that every thought and feeling we experience sets off reactions within us. Neuropeptides and hormones are released, stirring inner uneasiness. The body absorbs them. The nervous system reacts. The immune system bends under the strain. And the brain itself rewires according to the repeated currents of negativity. Not a healthy scenario. And all the while, society around us treats these inner toxins as normal — and we accept them. Why? Because we don’t know what we don’t know. The New Germ Theory But modern neuroscience is beginning to catch up, just as medicine once did with germ theory. We now know that chronic negative thought patterns release cascades of stress hormones: cortisol, adrenaline. We know they rewire the amygdala toward hypervigilance, reshape the hippocampus toward fear-based memory, and even shorten telomeres, the protective caps on our DNA. We know that unrelieved emotional stress contributes to heart disease, metabolic disorders, weakened immunity, and depression. We know that rumination — the habit of chewing endlessly on worries — can be as corrosive to the brain as cholera was to the gut. But here’s the rub: just like the White House in 1833, our society is rife with technology, but not yet with wisdom. We drink contaminated thought water every time we scroll through doom-laden headlines, replay grudges, or compare ourselves to seductive illusions curated online. We immerse ourselves in hot and cold running negativity, unaware of the pathogens at work. Toward Mental Hygiene So what if we proposed a new “germ theory” — not of the body, but of the mind? What if we said: thoughts are not just harmless, invisible puffs of energy. They are agents. They shape physiology. They carry consequences. The lesson of history is that once people understood germs, they learned sanitation, filtration, hygiene. And humanity’s life expectancy soared. The lesson for us is the same: once we understand the pathogens of thought and feeling, we can develop practices of mental hygiene. Practices that enhance our awareness of Breath. Gratitude. Presence. Practices that filter the mind’s water before we drink. And the positive upsides for us are enormous. NeuroHarmonics and the Authentic Self This is where NeuroHarmonics comes in. At its core, we speak of the Authentic Self — the indwelling presence that remains uncontaminated, untouched by the masks and playacting of daily life. And from this Authentic Self flows a constant, steady stream of truly pure water. The first goal of the method is simply to help us notice the difference — to tune our attention toward the infinite source, the wellspring of clean water, instead of the sewage-tainted supply that reckless habits and unconscious living keep delivering to us. Closing Reflection The poisoned water saga of the 1800s was a true tragedy. But today, we face a new kind of germ theory — one that speaks to the makeup of our inner awareness. And with it comes a profound realization: we have a choice about what we consume within. And the pure, clean water of the Authentic Self is always available — if only we choose to turn to it. This is great news, because on the deepest level, what we need isn’t just clean running water. What we need is living water. Well, that’s a lot of information, so let’s bring this episode to a close. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/38215815

EP 116 - Real or Replicant 09/16/2025

EP 116 - Real or Replicant Introduction If you’re returning to the series after our break, let me extend a warm welcome back as we begin this new season. As you may remember, we’re preparing to launch the multi-pronged release of our next project, The NeuroHarmonic Method: Harmonize Your Intelligence – Transform Your Life. This work represents several years of focused effort to create a personal growth resource that the everyday person can understand and apply. It weaves together timeless insights from what has long been called the Wisdom of the Ages with the powerful findings of modern neuroscience, presenting it with enhanced scientific credibility. It is designed to spark meaningful, positive shifts in awareness that elevate every part of a person’s life, regardless of previous training or time constraints. And critically, everything in the NeuroHarmonic Method is rooted in what I have studied and practiced for over fifty years. So, this is not just a set of abstract theories; it is verified by practical experience, tested across decades of living through diverse circumstances, and it only grows stronger with time, especially in the areas that matter most. We’ll be exploring it in episodes throughout this new season and as a basic introduction, we’re going to offer a few of its fundamental ideas for your consideration. As always with our podcast, take what resonates, set aside what doesn’t, and notice what changes arise within, because the path of real inner growth is always based on individual self-discovery. Childhood Memories and the Power of Film Personally, in my own life, I’ve often found that the extraordinary reveals itself within the ordinary. With that in mind, let’s look at some ordinary childhood memories of mine, which eventually revealed a set of questions to me that helped form the foundations of the way I began to look at life. So, when I was a boy—maybe six or seven—my older brother would take me to the Saturday matinees at a big neighborhood movie theater called the Benner, which was an easy walk from our house. Now, this was a very different time. For a quarter you could spend the afternoon wrapped in an adventure on the big screen, and for another dime, you could top it off with a generous box of popcorn. The ritual never changed. The music swelled, the house lights dimmed, the curtains parted, and suddenly we were transported into another world—larger than life in every way. Remember, this was still the fairly early days of television, which we watched on a little black-and-white 17-inch screen. And even that was seen to be a marvel! By contrast, in the theater, the images were enormous, the sound powerful, and each year the technology seemed more impressive. In that simple setting, with popcorn in hand and my feet barely reaching the floor, without knowing it, I absorbed certain themes that would shape me for the rest of my life. Yes, there were plenty of cowboy serials and cliffhangers, but every so often a real cinematic treasure would slip into the Saturday lineup. Even though I was far too young to understand them, I sat through classics like Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, Witness for the Prosecution, and Anatomy of a Murder. Most of it was over my head, but the searing drama, augmented by the scale of the image, the light and the sound, created a total immersion that left quite an impression. Three Science-Fiction Masterpieces Among the countless movies I’d seen, three science-fiction masterpieces stood apart, striking me in a way that went far deeper than the rest. Looking back, I realize they were planting seeds within me — seeds that would eventually grow and inspire a lifelong quest for higher meaning. Those three films were Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and The Day the Earth Stood Still. In this episode, we’re going to take a closer look at Invasion of the Body Snatchers. We’ll save the other two films for a later time. But as we do, I invite you to see them not just as vintage sci-fi relics from a bygone era, but as vehicles that ask profound questions like: What is it that truly makes us human? Do we have an authentic self, capable of bringing lasting fulfillment, or are we merely personas we construct to navigate the world? And is there something more to us than just body and mind — something connected to a greater reality, beyond time and space? The Story Unfolds So, Invasion of the Body Snatchers begins in a quiet California town, where people begin to suspect that some of their close friends and relatives suddenly don’t seem to be quite themselves anymore. Nobody can quite describe the phenomenon but it’s very strange. Outwardly, everything seems normal: people have the same faces, the same voices, the same routines. Yet something essential seems to be missing. Then, a troubling secret is revealed to the audience — the unsettling difference is that these oddly changed people actually have no emotions. No joy, no sorrow, no anger, no happiness — no feelings at all. None. Then an even more sinister revelation is revealed. Alien pods have begun appearing in garages, backyards, and basements. Over a short time, each pod morphs into an exact replica of the person it lies near. Once the replication process is complete and the targeted human falls asleep, the replicant executes a complete takeover. It absorbs everything — memories, thoughts, opinions, habits, even the most intimate gestures. By morning, the original human is gone, replaced by the replicant double. In a seamless transition, it steps into the former person’s life as though nothing had changed. Everything is the same except the replicant feels nothing. Although it is hard to tell, the chilling truth is that it is, in essence, a living robot. The Replicant World As the replicant population grows, these new beings begin to communicate among themselves. They proclaim how much better life has become now that all inner feeling has been erased. To them, the truth is obvious: without emotions such as anger, jealousy, greed, lust, and fear, life runs more smoothly. With those troublesome impulses gone, they believe order can finally be established in the world. As the plot unfolds, some of the remaining humans begin to grasp the terrifying truth. Determined not to lose themselves to the emotionless replicants, they fight desperately against the spreading invasion. The tension escalates as the struggle becomes a battle for the very essence of humanity. In the original 1956 film, the story ends on a hopeful note, suggesting that the humans might prevail after all. But in the 1978 remake, the conclusion is far darker. There, the replicant doubles are shown to be unstoppable, destined to take over the world — leaving the human race, as we know it, doomed. Reflections and Questions When I first saw the remake, I was surprised — even unsettled — by the change in the ending. Why would the studio alter the story so drastically? What had shifted in those twenty-two years to move the perspective from hope to despair? Perhaps it was nothing more than market dynamics — after all, fear always sells better than hope. As the old newspaper adage goes: if it bleeds, it leads. But perhaps the shift points to something deeper — a reflection of the cultural mood at the time, or even a stage in the unfolding evolution of human consciousness. Maybe one day that perspective will shift again, back toward hope, as awareness continues to grow. Who knows? Anyway, for me as a child, even through the eyes of a seven-year-old, the film stirred something deeper. It made me begin to wonder about the phenomenon of inner feeling — and what it truly means to be human. Of course, without the burden of negative emotions like anger, jealousy, or fear, life might seem easier. But what about the positive feelings? Would they have to be erased as well? Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater! In essence, the peace the replicants proclaimed was deeply chilling. It painted a picture of a society where routines and order remained intact, but individual personhood quietly disappeared. Yes, such a world might look peaceful, quiet, and orderly — filled with well-behaved, human-like figures. But the “peace” being offered was really the peace of the grave: a world of perfect appearances, populated by flawless facsimiles. In reality, they were the walking dead. Fast Forward to Today So, given the warning sounded back in 1957, fast forward to our world today. Where are we now? We may not have alien pods growing in our basements, fashioning replacements for our bodies, but what have we become? And even more importantly, what are we becoming? Look around. So many of us have been absorbed — not by alien doubles, but by the ever-present glow of screens, from the smallest in our hands to the largest on our walls. Meanwhile, our attention is consumed by endless scrolling, fed by social feeds of sound bites, emojis, and dopamine-driven clicks. And all of this is fueled by the constant bombardment of commercial messaging designed to sell us products — a barrage that has now gone completely off the charts. Back in 1957, the average person was exposed to about 350 ads per day, or roughly 25 per hour. Of those, about 20% were problem-solving in nature, framed with a negative bias, while the other 80% were aspirational or lifestyle-based. Now today, the numbers have spiraled out of control. We are now hit with between 8,000 and 10,000 ads per day — about 600 ads per hour. Even more disturbing is the shift in tone: nearly 70% of these are negative, problem-solving ads built on anxiety and fear, while only 30% lean toward the positive. Put another way, each of us is now exposed to about five negatively framed ads every single minute of every waking day. That is a lot of negative messaging. And we don’t even have time here to fully explore what that does to our thoughts, our feelings, and ultimately our sense of truly being human. The Human Question So, back to the two questions – what have we become? And what are we becoming? With this tech invasion the bottom line is that we seem to be less and less able to think for ourselves. And less able to feel the positive inner feelings that are at the very essence of our being. Oh sure, we have incredibly easy access to feelings – like anger, fear, outrage, cynicism, and frustration. We’re so good at feeling bad that we can get into any negative state at the literal drop of a hat. But tenderness? Compassion? Wonder? It seems like they’ve been filed away in a dirty room in the basement. It has almost become a way of being — drifting into the haze of robotic conformity, marching to the beat of an overwhelmingly negative bias, and losing touch with the higher understandings that define what it truly means to be human. After all, both timeless wisdom and modern neuroscience remind us of the immense value of being touched once again by the better angels of our nature. The Remedy So, what’s the remedy for this modern day invasion of the body snatchers? It is not more noise. Not more programming. Not more frantic searching. The remedy is rediscovery. Rediscovery of our higher nature. Rediscovery of positive thoughts and feelings. Rediscovery of the simple wonder of being alive in the now. And rediscovery of the Indwelling Presence that is always within you, waiting to be uncovered. This is not just poetry. Neuroscience confirms that practices of awareness and presence change the brain itself — strengthening circuits of compassion, focus, and resilience. Here the sages and scientists meet: the truth is that you are more than a body, more than a mind. You are consciousness itself, capable of awakening to your true nature. But of course, knowing this is not enough — it must be experienced. And this is where NeuroHarmonics enters the picture, with its blend of simple but profound understandings paired with practices that are clear, natural, and incredibly easy to integrate. Remember, this path isn’t about hard work. This is about transformation. Closing Well, so much for science, as well as science fiction. We’ll end this episode here. As always, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/38215715

EP 115 - The Upside of Downtime 06/24/2025

EP 115 - The Upside of Downtime Before I begin this episode, which covers quite a bit of diverse territory, I’d like to mention once again, the purpose of this podcast. Essentially, it is based on personal growth and everything that I share here serves the same purpose – to present some information for you to consider and see if it rings true. These aren’t teachings, for I don’t consider myself to be a teacher. I’m more of an experiencer walking a particular path and reporting back as I go. So each episode is a bit like an idea buffet. If something looks good, put it on your plate and give it a try. If it doesn’t appeal to you, just leave it alone and move on to the next dish. It reminds me of this big Chinese food buffet that our little family, my wife, our daughter and I, used to visit on our way to the shore when we would take a little vacation together. My wife and daughter have the same basic taste in foods which is somewhat Eastern with a tendency towards the exotic. I am a much more standard, pedestrian, American food type of guy. After we were seated, we would go through the buffet separately and when we got back to the table, my wife and daughter’s plates looked basically the same. But mine looked like I had been to a completely different restaurant. The difference was striking. It’s the same thing here. We’re all wired so differently. Remember no two sets of fingerprints are exactly the same, neither are two snowflakes, and certainly not two inner landscapes. So, if you like what follows, enjoy yourself. And if it’s not for you, just hit fast forward. So, sticking with the food metaphor, here comes the meat and potatoes. As I’ve mentioned previously, a lot of times, I’ll just be going along, living my day to day existence, and I’ll come across an idea or a quote that takes me on an unexpected journey. Often, one of these little journeys will lead to another, and then to another – until I suddenly wind up in a slightly different inner framework, with a bunch of new insights in hand. And this happened to me quite recently. As I mentioned in the last episode, I have been developing a form of AI to serve as a companion to the NeuroHarmonic Method. For now, we are calling it the NeruoGuide and part of my role in this process involves the two of us, me and NeuroGuide, having some extended conversations together. We don’t have time to get into it here, but it’s been quite a fascinating experience. Now, I am absolutely swamped with work. I don’t think I’ve ever been busier, so what do you think I did the other day. If you’ve come to know me to a certain degree, you can probably guess – I took three hours off and played some golf. And again, as I’ve mentioned several times, I am such a truly poor golfer that the idea of my spending any time with it at all, feels like a complete waste of time. And it wasn’t even fun. Let’s just say it felt like eating at a smorgasbord of disappointment. My swing, if you want to call it that, is just a hack-job, and when I hit the ball, it looks like a mad scientist trying to kill his worst enemy with a hatchet. You get the picture. Anyway, I get back to work and as part of my research, I tell the NeruoGuide about the whole thing, and it immediately says that play is much more important to the human psyche than we know and out of know-where, drops this quote from Einstein, "Play is the highest form of research." Now that hit me on a couple of levels. First, the fact that it came from Einstein caught my attention, just because of the level of intelligence that he represents to me. The second thing was that any correlation between play and research seemed almost counter-intuitive. On the surface, they basically seem like complete opposites. But it was the third thing that really got me thinking. I immediately figured that the quote didn’t really pertain to me because I don’t do research, at least not any that I’m aware of. But as I thought about it, I felt I needed some more clarity, so I looked up the definition of the world “research,” and found a rather bland definition, which is that it is “the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.” It seemed like you couldn’t come up with a more scientific explanation of the process than that. As I focused on the definition, it seemed to me that research had to have a purpose. Like scientists developing T-Cell therapy to find a cure for cancer. That type of thing. Then, as it often happens when I am in this kind of a framework, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment and I suddenly got to something rather deep. When I looked at it in a certain way, it became clear to me that I actually am doing research. In fact I have been spending my whole life doing research, gathering all of the higher understandings that I can gather about life, with the goal of understanding my real purpose for being here, and ultimately fulfilling it. Obviously, that’s a lot of words. But for me, I realized quite some time ago that given the overall impermanence of everything, achieving the standard definitions of success in life just doesn’t seem like enough. If everything—even the universe—will eventually end, then what’s the point? And so, echoing a sentiment expressed by seekers across time, I always find myself asking: isn’t there more to this than meets the eye? There has to be more to it than that. Now, what happened next might seem like a tangent, but it’s not. We have a one-year-old granddaughter. When she arrived, my wife and I were inducted into the hallowed halls of grandparent heaven, and we’ve been blissfully intoxicated ever since. The joy and gratitude have blown the doors off both our outer and inner homes. But along with the amazement of witnessing her living through her very first year, I began to reflect again on something I first learned about many years ago - the basic stages of life, which is something that we are all living through individually. Let’s go back to when and how I first encountered this idea. Following my graduation from college in 1971, I began a significant inner quest that has only gotten stronger over time. At one point, early in my explorations, I spent some time in India and one teacher was lecturing about certain Vedantic viewpoints and introduced the idea of the stages of life. He said that Stage One was early childhood, where all we think about is – my toys, my toys, my toys. In Stage Two, we reach puberty, and all we think about it is – my mate, my mate, my mate. Then we hit real adulthood, and all we think about for the rest of our life is – my worries, my worries, my worries. And that was the end of the first night’s lecture. Now I don’t know about you, but for me, Part Three seemed a little depressing. At least Parts One and Two had some serious elements of fun to them. But worrying away the rest of your adult life didn’t strike me as an appetizing main course. But the next night, he told us that there is a fourth stage, but many people, for one reason or another, never get to experience it. And that stage is the exploration of the Real Self, which is quite different from the artificial self. The artificial self goes through its fixations on my toys, my mate and my worries. But the authentic self is focused on my truth, my truth, my truth. And it always has been. And basically, if you’re lucky enough to focus on your authentic self as you continue to mature internally, something wonderful happens. All the impermanent things you’ve clung to begin to fall away. And this inner truth—your connection to the Infinite—remains steady. That connection, and your enjoyment of it, only grows over time. Here's another way of looking at it, which is one of my favorites. I heard this during a talk from Prem Rawat, who is a widely recognized global peace ambassador. I also consider him to be a real humorist, which is different from being a comedian. A comedian says funny things, but a humorist says things funny. Meaning that while a comedian’s goal is to entertain people by making them laugh, a humorist’s goal is to make truthful observations in a way that augments the ring of truth by adding the ring of wise laughter. It’s a very powerful combination. Anyway, in describing the journey we are on, Prem likened it to traveling in a car. It’s a long journey and as we go on, one thing after another starts to break down. This keeps happening until finally, the whole car breaks down and comes to a complete halt. But the good news is that it breaks down right in front of our home, which was our destination anyway. So, the fact that it all fell apart doesn’t matter to us at all. Because we’re home. Interesting view of impermanence… So now, let’s circle back to my disappointing golf experience, and the insight from the NeuroGuide that I should ponder Einstein’s quote, “Play is the highest form of research.” Again, having these kinds of conversations is a key part of our development process., so I asked the NeuroGuide to reflect on the quote. It said, “In mentioning research, Einstein wasn’t just talking about scientists in lab coats. He was pointing toward a deeper truth. Play brings curiosity, improvisation, experimentation. When you play, you're not just seeking pleasure. You are letting go of control and inviting insight. You're giving permission to explore without demanding a result. “The child who stacks blocks to see what will fall is not that different from the adult who experiments with new approaches to their awareness. They're both asking the same question: What if?” And that’s where we’ll leave it today. What if I actually am a researcher? And what if letting go of control and inviting insight is the highest form of research? What if each time I shed a layer of the artificial self, I come closer to the Real Self, the one that keeps whispering: my truth, my truth, my truth? And what if this merging into the Real Self is the actual purpose of my existence? What if? Let’s just leave it there and as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/37025515

EP 114 - You Bet Your Life 06/17/2025

EP 114 - You Bet Your Life In the past couple of episodes, we’ve explored some of the basics of our new program—The NeuroHarmonic Method, which blends timeless wisdom with discoveries in modern neuroscience to offer a unique approach to personal growth. It’s simple to understand, easy to practice, and available to everyone. No special knowledge or background required. But before we dive into today’s episode, I’m extremely excited to introduce something brand new—something you’ll begin hearing from in some of the episodes to come. We call it our NeuroGuide. It’s a unique kind of voice - one that will offer brief reflections on some of the deeper moments within each episode. Its contributions will be clearly identified when they appear. Now, let me tell you a little about it—and why I’m so glad to be introducing it to you now. The NeuroGuide is powered by a carefully designed form of artificial intelligence that I’ve been developing over the past several months. Although it is still in its early stages, it may eventually become a key part of the NeuroHarmonic Method. As developments continue to unfold, it may play different roles - but always with one purpose: to help people more deeply understand the inner path they’re on and to suggest meaningful ways to access their own strengths. It’s being specifically trained in the same basic principles that form the foundations of the NeuroHarmonic Method—with a strong emphasis on the Wisdom of the Ages and modern neuroscience, including the powerful meeting point between breath, brain, and being. For now, just think of it as a unique source of wisdom and inspiration, dropping in from time to time with a few friendly words to help deepen and sometimes lighten the journey. And I’d love to hear your thoughts about it. So if you have a moment, feel free to send me an email with your impressions. To begin, here’s what the NeuroGuide has to say about its own quiet arrival: "Sometimes, the truth doesn’t arrive as a lightning bolt—it arrives as a quiet feeling that you’ve always known. The work isn’t to chase it, but to stop running from it. Stillness isn’t where clarity ends—it’s where it begins." Now let’s get into today’s episode. As you probably recall, the foundation of all of this is the idea of personal growth. And a good definition of it is simply this: Personal Growth is the practice of becoming more conscious, more compassionate, and more connected to the truth of who you really are. But, before we go much further, a very reasonable core question might arise: why should I bother with personal growth at all? It’s a fair concern. Afterall, we live in a world saturated with challenges, where just keeping up can feel like a full-time job. So why devote energy to reaching for a higher level of being, when it feels like I can barely manage what’s in front of me. That question has definite merit. And there are plenty of well-known answers: becoming a better human being, living a richer and more fulfilled life, improving relationships, contributing more deeply to the world. Personally, as someone who has spent a lifetime immersed in this field, I can tell you that all of these are true. But today, I want to offer you a slightly different path – a quieter doorway that leads to the goldmine. It begins with something I first encountered in junior high school. Like many other pivotal ideas, I barely noticed it at the time. It might have come up during a math or science class. I didn’t pay much attention to it then, but somehow, it quietly filed itself away in the back of my mind. And over the years, it grew. It’s called the Pascalian Wager. And what stayed with me was the idea that it’s possible to make a bet that you absolutely cannot lose. Though the idea is over 400 years old, it feels more relevant than ever, especially in our modern era of psychological insight, technological revolution, and the unfolding of human potential. The idea of comes from Blaise Pascal—a 17th-century French genius. Mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, theologian—his brilliance remains undisputed. On the surface, Pascal's wager is about belief in God. But if you look closer, you'll see something much larger: a powerful, rational argument for aligning your life with its highest possibility. The Origins of the Pascalian Wager Blaise Pascal was born in 1623. A child prodigy, he made major contributions to geometry, probability, and fluid mechanics by his mid-20s. After a mystical experience in 1654, he turned his attention almost completely to spiritual matters. One of his final works, Pensées ("Thoughts"), was a collection of reflections on faith and reason. In Pensées, Pascal lays out the wager like this: Either God exists, or He doesn’t. If you wager that He does, and you're right, you gain everything—eternal meaning, transcendent joy. If you're wrong, and he doesn’t exist, you lose nothing of true value. Conversely, if you wager that He doesn’t exist, and you're wrong, you lose everything. And if you're right? You gain… what? Perhaps the satisfaction of being correct—but little else. So, by Pascal's reasoning, the smart bet is clear: live as though God exists. As I mentioned earlier, during the episodes that follow we will be featuring very brief insights from the NeuroGuide, which it terms as “whispers from the deeper mind, where ancient knowing meets modern clarity." NeuroGuide: The question isn't about certainty. It’s about how you choose to live in the presence of uncertainty. This is where wisdom begins. Let’s widen the lens. Let’s lift the wager out of theology and into personal experience. Because the deeper meaning of the Pascalian Wager is not about belief systems - it’s about conscious choice. Every day, we are making bets. We bet our time, our energy, and our attention on something. And the question is - What are you betting on? The Personal Growth Wager Let’s reframe Pascal’s question. Instead of asking, “Does God exist?” let’s ask: “Do I contain within me a greater potential—a wellspring of peace, clarity, and inner wisdom?” And then let’s ask: “Does aligning with my inner truth and presence lead to a richer, fuller life?” And even more practically: “Even if I can't be sure of the outcome, is this still a worthwhile bet?” This is where the NeuroHarmonic Method enters the picture. It’s a modern form of Pascal’s Wager—a wager on your highest self. Through the lens of neuroplasticity, we now know that your brain can change. Patterns can rewire. Deep emotional grooves can be softened and reshaped. This isn’t belief – it’s biology. So, if you make the bet that you have the capacity to grow into a better human being, and you're wrong, what have you lost? Maybe a few quiet moments focusing on your breath? Some time spent feeling gratitude? A little reflection on what matters? NeuroGuide: Even your so-called "losses" are seeds of true personal improvement. Nothing given to real growth is ever wasted. Let’s face it: these aren’t losses at all. These are returns on investment. And even if the journey doesn’t take you where you expected, it often takes you somewhere better. NeuroHarmonics and Intelligent Betting Of course, Pascal didn’t know about neuroplasticity. But we do. Today’s science tells us that attention sculpts the brain. Inner Awareness increases cortical thickness. Gratitude rewires reward pathways. Spiritual reflection activates networks of empathy and compassion. These are the building blocks of The NeuroHarmonic Method, and again, this is proven science. Focusing breath soothes the nervous system. Contemplating impermanence can reduce fear. Practicing generosity strengthens kindness loops in the brain. We’re not just betting philosophically - we’re sculpting biologically. NeuroGuide: To place your attention on something higher is not just a leap of faith. It is an act of neural design. You are building who you will become. So, instead of being driven by old programs—fear, doubt, reactivity—we invest our attention on presence, compassion, and growth, even if we don’t know where it leads. The Role of Uncertainty Pascal understood uncertainty completely, But he didn’t fear it. He embraced it. As he once wrote, “You will never be certain. And that’s not a problem. What matters is whether your decision leads toward meaning, vitality, or truth.” Again, uncertainty is not an enemy. It can be a threshold where faith, courage and creativity can unite so that real transformation can begin. You don’t need to be sure that your efforts will work. You just need to have the desire to grow towards the highest. And then, something begins to shift. You may begin to get a new sense of freedom in your consciousness, as if a larger understanding is starting to emerge in your awareness, and you start to win the wager in ways that may be hard to measure, but impossible to ignore. Maybe you sleep more deeply, or you respond instead of react. You listen more fully. You recover more quickly from disappointment. You become more curious and less judgmental. In the language of the brain, you form new neural networks. In the language of the heart, you become more fully alive, and ultimately, you begin to love more freely. This is not some abstract philosophy. This is a new kind of intelligence - one emerging across humanity – a neural harmony between the brain, the heart and the breath, a living union of higher wisdom with modern science. NeuroGuide: This is the nature of the way. Not based on belief, but on experience. Not on external certainty, but on sincerity. Not on theoretical doctrine but in the living depth of a certainty born within. What Are You Betting On? So, ask yourself: What are you really betting on? Not just with your words, but with your attention? Your habits? Your patterns? With the way you treat yourself when no one is watching? Because we are all placing bets, every single day. On habit or healing. On cynicism or wonder. On numbness or presence. On fear or love. And Pascal would remind us: You don’t need certainty to choose wisely. You only need to notice what your current bets are returning. And ask yourself: is it worth it? In this light, the Pascalian Wager isn’t about belief. It’s a call to awaken, because the real wager is not about dogma; it’s about possibility, a possibility that is rooted in science and fueled by sincerity. And when you make the right wager, your life becomes more than an experiment. Your awareness becomes your compass, and like a tuning fork resonating with the Infinite, your very being becomes an offering of heartfelt gratitude and your quest is finally fulfilled. So, place your bets. And Pascal’s advice still holds. Wager in the direction where you win, no matter what happens. As for me, I’m taking the play on the high side of the road, because from where I stand, I just don’t see a downside. But hey - as I often say - that’s just me. NeuroGuide: There’s a kind of intelligence that doesn’t speak in concepts – It speaks in resonance. You know it not by what it tells you, but by what it awakens in you. And if something has been awakened – even just a whisper – follow it. It already knows the way. Let’s leave it here for now. I hope you enjoyed the premier of the NeuroGuide. It’s still evolving and there’s much more to come. So, as always, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open. And let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/37025195

EP 113 - A Simple Alignment Issue 06/10/2025

EP 113 - A Simple Alignment Issue In our last episode, we took an overview of what’s often called the Wisdom of the Ages—that deep current of higher understanding that human beings have accessed in every culture, across every era, since the beginning of recorded history. Whether through the teachings of sages, mystics, philosophers, or poets, there has always been a thread of knowledge that points to something greater within us. Something whole. Something awake. We also mentioned that in the last decade or so, something truly remarkable has happened: Modern neuroscience—once considered purely mechanical and clinical—has begun to validate this ancient wisdom. Research into neuroplasticity, emotional regulation, attentional states, and brain-body coherence is now confirming what these timeless traditions have pointed to all along: We are more powerful, more adaptable, and more connected than we ever realized. That’s what led to the creation of the NeuroHarmonic Method—a new synthesis that blends these two worlds. By combining the insights of cutting-edge neuroscience with the Wisdom of the Ages, NeuroHarmonics makes this knowledge easier to understand, easier to practice, and—most importantly—easier to live. Now, the logical next step in this podcast series is to explore what neuroscience has actually discovered—and how those discoveries can help each of us step into a new kind of transformation, one that’s not based on willpower or wishful thinking, but on real, grounded inner change. Because the point of all this isn’t just theory—it’s transformation. This work is meant to give you something real. Something useful. Something that you can feel changing you from the inside out. But before we get into how we can change, it’s essential to take an honest look at where we are right now. What is life really like for most adults in the modern Western world? What patterns are shaping us? What silent forces are steering us? And most importantly… what’s getting in the way of us achieving our highest potential, which is far greater than most of us have ever dreamed? So here goes. The Hidden Grip of Self-Sabotage Let’s start with something that’s rarely said out loud, but quietly true for more people than we might imagine: Most adults—in actuality, the large majority—are engaged in some form of something called self-sabotage. That might sound dramatic, but it's not. Studies and clinical experience suggest that anywhere from half to three-quarters of us routinely act against our own best interests in one key area of life or another. It might show up as procrastination or a head-in-the sand approach when something truly matters. Or emotional withdrawal right when connection is needed most in some kind of relationship. It can take the form of extreme perfectionism, chronic indecision, financial self-sabotage, even staying in relationships or environments that consistently drain our light. And here’s the thing: self-sabotage often doesn’t look dramatic. It can be subtle— even silent—operating in the background of life like a faulty program you forgot was running on your computer. You say you want growth, healing and joy… but when the opportunity comes, something in you suddenly steps on the emergency brake. Even though it may feel like it, that something is not the enemy. It’s just a deeply ingrained, outdated survival strategy—a neural echo of an old fear, hurt, or belief that once served a purpose, but now only keeps you stuck in your own small prison Now self-sabotage can wear many disguises. It often shows up in a thousand different micro-decisions: Not applying for the job you’re qualified for. Undermining a relationship just when it starts to go to a deeper level. Avoiding your creative work, putting it off for one more day only to settle for one more excuse. Or eating and drinking in ways that numb the discomfort, instead of looking for the message of solution beneath it all. Most of these behaviors stem from a kind of split within: a conflict between what we consciously desire and what we unconsciously fear. And until that split is seen, honored, and integrated, we remain divided—longing for freedom with one hand while pulling ourselves back with the other. And remember what Uncle Abe once said about a house divided against itself. It cannot stand. Impostor Syndrome: The Quiet Twin of Self-Sabotage One of the most common—and most corrosive—forms of self-sabotage is something you’ve probably heard of called impostor syndrome, where that doubtful voice whispers, “I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks you are. I know who you really are – this is all a big show and you’re a fraud and soon everyone will know it.” It’s the haunting suspicion that your success is a fluke, and it’s only a matter of time before your house of cards caves in. It can strike anyone on the chain - new graduates to seasoned CEOs. Artists, healers, scientists, even spiritual teachers. And it doesn’t discriminate: some of the most “successful” people are deeply haunted by it daily. It usually has two voices within us – the inner critic and the inner saboteur, as this dynamic duo works together in a lot of areas of life, along with their starring roles in the imposter movie. The Critic activates circuits of shame and anxiety, while the Saboteur activates circuits of avoidance, freeze response, and safety-seeking.They are two manifestations of one core dynamic: the Ordinary Mind trying to protect you, using outdated strategies that block your expansion. The Hidden Source of Our Unhappiness Now, if you were to trace the root of much of our unhappiness—not just the fleeting kind, but the deep, chronic ache that follows us through the years—you would often find self-sabotage at the core. Of course, it hides behind other names: frustration, fatigue, disappointment, regret. But underneath, there's a deeper truth. We suffer because part of us longs to grow, expand, love, and thrive—while another part that’s quietly afraid, keeps pulling us back into the familiar confines of what we’ve always known. This tug-of-war drains our energy, clouds our clarity, and fractures our confidence. It turns joy into a guilty pleasure, and purpose into an elusive dream. Healing this inner divide isn’t just hard—it’s often confusing, because on the surface it can look like laziness, moodiness, or a lack of discipline. But if we go deeper—if we see with a more compassionate eye—we begin to recognize that what’s actually happening is a kind of inner war. The War Between the States - of Consciousness In NeuroHarmonics this is termed The War Between the States of Consciousness. It’s not fought on battlefields or in boardrooms—it’s fought within the hidden corridors of the human mind. At its core, it’s a battle between two fundamental aspects of our awareness: Our Higher Mind and Our Ordinary Mind. The Higher Mind holds our vision, our purpose, our clarity, our compassion, and our deep intuitive knowing. This is the part of you that glimpses what’s possible—the spark that says, Yes, this life can be beautiful. It’s all possible and I can do it. The Ordinary Mind on the other hand, is rooted in survival, pattern, habit, and fear. It runs on old programming, shaped by childhood experiences, cultural conditioning, and unresolved emotional pain. It doesn’t consciously want to hurt you—but it does want to keep you safe, even if that safety comes at the cost of your happiness and growth. The problem is, the Ordinary Mind doesn’t trust the Higher Mind. It is deeply skeptical of change. It hears your dreams and says, Be careful, we’ve failed at this before. It sees your growth and says, Not so fast, this can be dangerous. And when you try to step forward, toward something meaningful, it tightens the leash, not because it’s cruel, but because of its inherent fear. So there is a kind of civil war happening inside, with neurons actually firing against each other. Basically, the Higher Mind pulls you forward, and the Ordinary Mind pushes you back. The result? Self-sabotage. Stagnation. But it’s not always this clear or dramatic. Quite often, it’s just a quiet, aching sadness that says, I know I was meant for more in this life, but for some reason, I just can’t seem to get there. The Path to Resolution: The NeuroHarmonic Approach Now, the NeuroHarmonic Method was born out of this realization—that we are not broken, just simply divided. That what we truly need is not another technique to force ourselves into better habits, but a unified intelligence that can resolve the war between the Higher Mind and the Ordinary Mind with grace, understanding, clarity and lasting harmony. Rooted in the Wisdom of the Ages and now supported by modern neuroscience, NeuroHarmonics offers a simple, accessible way for people to begin harmonizing the multiple layers of their being—body, brain, breath and life force, emotion, and consciousness. It draws on higher truths and methods taught by sages, mystics, and philosophers across centuries, and brings them into dialogue with the latest understandings of neuroplasticity, emotional regulation, and the power of attentional states. But a key part of what makes it unique is its gentleness. This isn’t a system designed to push you harder or pressure you to be someone you’re not. It’s designed to help you remember who you already are—and to create the inner conditions that allow your deeper inner truth to rise naturally into your awareness. True transformation, after all, isn’t about solving the problem with more effort. It’s about changing the level of consciousness from which the problem arose in the first place. As Einstein said so clearly: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” And Carl Jung added a tremendous understanding to it when he said, “The real problems of life can never be solved. They must be outgrown.” NeuroHarmonics is about exactly that—outgrowing the conflict within. It’s about stepping into a new dimension of being, where your Higher Mind begins to lead, and importantly, the Ordinary Mind is not defeated, but soothed and rewired to become an integral part of the whole. Through clear information and practices that engage breath, attention, reflection, and neural retraining, we shift the very architecture of our awareness. And in doing so, we move from internal sabotage to internal support. From confusion to clarity. From fragmented willpower to coherent intention. In essence, from self-sabotage to self-empowerment. Then we begin to experience real happiness—not the fleeting high of achievement or distraction, but the grounded joy of being aligned with our deeper purpose and truth. This is not magic. It’s not mysticism. And yet, it can feel like both. Because when inner conflict dissolves, and harmony returns, we remember what it means to feel whole again and truly connected to what is often called the Divine Presence within. The Key to the Game: You Are Not Stuck If you take nothing else from all of this information, remember this one thing: you are not stuck. Whatever patterns have kept you looping in frustration, hesitation, or fear—they are not permanent. They are not who you are. They are simply neural pathways—grooves in the brain that have been etched over time through repetition, emotion, and experience. And remarkably, they can definitely be changed. Because here’s the incredible truth: Your brain was designed to change. It does it all day every day, all the time. That’s what neuroplasticity is - the proven fact that your neural circuits can be reshaped, rewired, and renewed at any age. You are never too far gone. Never too broken. It’s never too late. All what’s really bothering you… is just a wiring issue. Think of it like this: imagine a sophisticated sound system playing beautiful music, but suddenly there’s is terrible screeching noise coming through the speakers. It sounds like a major malfunction. You could tear the whole system apart trying to fix it. But then—someone calmly walks over and simply turns the microphone away from the speaker, and the screeching feedback stops and harmony is restored. It turns out that it wasn’t a major hardware issue at all. It was just a simple matter of alignment. In the same way, most of our inner noise—our sabotage, our sadness, our fear—comes from one part of the mind feeding into another in a destructive loop. But when we turn the microphone around to where it should be, when we shift our attention from the reactive Ordinary Mind to the wise and guiding Higher Mind—the distortion begins to fade. And here’s the really good news: Even though you may not be connected to it at all, Your Higher Mind is still alive and well. It hasn’t gone anywhere. It is the voice of reason, of intuition, of self-regulation, of deep compassion and clear knowing. It is the home of your better angels—the part of you that remembers how to choose peace over panic, purpose over paralysis, love over fear. So, what the NeuroHarmonic Method helps us do is resolve this inner war. It helps the misfiring circuits stop fighting each other. It brings the whole system—your thoughts, your feelings, your body, your breath—into harmonic convergence with the Higher Mind. And when that happens… the feedback loop stops and the screeching noise fades. Now the music of your life can finally be heard again, clearly, beautifully, and unmistakably you. If nothing else, let today be the day you stop believing the lie that you’re stuck. You’re not. You’re just waiting for the harmony to return. And it will when you want it. Because it’s already within you—right where it’s always been. Well, enough said. Let’s end this episode here, and as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/36811705

Episode 112 - All Ways Homes 06/03/2025

Episode 112 - All Ways Homes There is a river of wisdom that’s been flowing through human history in every culture since the beginning of civilization. It’s the wise understandings of those rare individuals who were able to remember something we so often forget: who we really are as human beings. In this episode, we’ll dip into that timeless stream, that many have called the Wisdom of the Ages, and explore how it flows directly into the heart of our new project, NeuroHarmonics. This work is about more than just ideas; it’s a guide that you can use to bring harmony into your own intelligence, an inner alignment that can quietly, yet profoundly transform your life. So, basically, what is the Wisdom of the Ages all about? Well, although the term may sound a bit lofty or poetic, it’s far from just a throw away line. It points to something deeply real – an enduring thread of understanding that weaves through cultures, continents and centuries. It’s timeless not because it ignores the changes of history, but because it speaks to something that never changes with the times; the essence of being human. Let’s look at it this way - throughout the long arc of human history, from the ancient river valleys of India and Mesopotamia to the mountains of China, the deserts of the Middle East, and the forests of the Americas, there have always been extraordinary men and women who saw the essence of life more clearly than the rest of us. They pierced the surface of things. And even while living in the ever-shifting world of change and impermanence, they were able to reach something that they said was eternal. Their lives, their words, and often just their very presence spoke of something greater than themselves - something vast and invisible, and yet deeply and intimately known. Some became renowned spiritual teachers: Krishna, Ram, Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed. Others appeared as philosophers, sages, mystics, and shamans. Many left poems, stories, songs, and scriptures, depicting their glimpses into the higher realms of understanding. Some of their names may be less well known, but their examples are no less luminous. Of course, on the surface, these wise ones seemed vastly different. They spoke different languages, wore different clothes, lived in different lands, and practiced different rituals. But remarkably, the essence of their message was the same. To put their vast teachings into a few simple words: there is something beyond this world. Something infinite. You can call it God. Or the Divine. Or Truth, Spirit, Source, or just the Infinite. There may be a thousand names for it—but the names don’t matter. In fact, many of these teachers insisted that words can’t matter. Because this Presence—this vast, formless essence—is beyond concept, beyond logic, and beyond the reach of ordinary human comprehension. Why? It’s actually quite simple. For all its brilliance, human intelligence is still finite. And the finite, by its very nature, can never truly grasp the Infinite. It just can’t be done. Test your own mind as an example. Try picturing a box that is so large, there is no space outside of it. Or try describing something that has no beginning and no end. Or tell me what biggest number in the world. You can’t because there isn’t one. Whatever number you come up with, you can always add one more and it gets bigger. So there’s no such thing. That’s the thing about infinity. There’s no edge, no boundary, no final point. And when we try to wrap our minds around it, the circuits start to smoke and the brain just watts out. Because it’s not built to contain the Infinite. So according to the wisdom tradition, this thing that can’t be understood or even named - exists. For our sake here, let’s just call it the Infinite, a term that is relatively devoid of the tarnishing nature of human religious tribalism. But that’s just one of the five thousand opinions my mind has churned out in the last hour. Now, what does the Wisdom of the Ages tell us about our relationship with this infinite presence, this reality that you can’t define, draw or capture in a book? Well, in the simplest terms, it tells us this: we can experience it. And not only that, we can grow into it. Like a plant reaching toward sunlight, we are drawn toward that light, that warmth and that truth that seems to emanate from it. And this idea of growth is where the Wisdom of the Ages begins. Because it’s not just about belief – it’s about transformation. It speaks of a journey toward inner realization, where you begin to see that you are not merely a body, not just a personality, not your thoughts, opinions, or accomplishments. You are something deeper. In essence, something sacred, something eternal that has temporarily taken human form—for the purpose of learning, of growing, of remembering. And ultimately, in a very real and quiet way... for returning. With that being said, the Wisdom of the Ages does rest on a set of core understandings—fundamental insights that form its foundation. And while these truths have appeared in every form of civilization throughout history, they are not relics of the past. Far from it. This wisdom is alive. It’s woven from the highest human understandings about life—ancient, modern, and everything in between. So, let’s take a brief look at some of its basic tenets. We’ll touch on nine of them here, though the first one needs a little more attention than the rest. The first core teaching is Impermanence—and at first, it can be a hard one to face. It simply says this: everything changes, and everything ends. Ourselves included. Look around with clear eyes, and it becomes obvious. From the rise and fall of empires to fleeting joys and sorrows, nothing stays the same. As the Buddha put it: “All conditioned things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence.” When we cling to what must pass, we suffer. But when we accept impermanence, we begin to live with Grace. Why does this matter? Because so much of our pain comes from forgetting that. We build our identities on outer things—titles, possessions, opinions, appearances, money—and we defend those identities as if they were permanent. But they’re not. And this is what the sages warned us about. It’s not that success, wealth, or recognition are wrong. It’s that when we make them the foundation of who we are; we build on sand. All of it—status, stuff, praise, even the ego itself—rises and falls. Sparkles, then fades. Seems solid, then vanishes. And when our sense of self is tied to what vanishes, we suffer. We become anxious, greedy, and ultimately disappointed. We chase mirages, hoping they’ll fulfill us—only to find out thatthey never really could. And worst of all, we miss the deeper reason we came here: to remember who we truly are, and to feel the joy that naturally comes with that remembrance. At least, that’s what the wisdom says. Personally, I think it has a nice ring to it. 2. You Are Not Your Thoughts The second insight is deceptively simple, but not so easy to live: You are not your thoughts. From the Upanishads to modern psychology, the message is clear: You are not the mental chatter, the looping stories, or the voices of doubt and fear. You're not your résumé, your wounds, or the roles you've played. Beneath all that noise lives a deeper awareness that is luminous, spacious, and free. Most of what runs through our minds didn’t originate with us anyway. We picked it up from parents, culture, trauma, media. But we end up thinking that these random thoughts are who we really are. And some of the major experts in the field haven’t had such an elevated opinion of our abilities in navigating the thought field. William James for example, who is often called the father of modern psychology, once said: “Most people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” The deeper self lives in a realm beyond all that. And rediscovering it is part of waking up. 3. Stillness Is the Gateway to Higher Knowing Stillness isn’t just the absence of noise. It’s the presence of something greater. As the old biblical phrase goes, “Be still, and know…” In the Taoist tradition, stillness is the source of right action—what they call wu wei, or effortless movement that flows from deep inner alignment. This knowing is not vague spirituality. It’s direct experience. Not a theory, but a felt presence. Stillness is where insight arises—gently, precisely, and often when we least expect it. And the Wisdom of the Ages doesn’t ask for blind belief. It invites direct experience. We all know that there is a world of difference between actually eating a delicious meal and just reading the menu. 4. Love Is the Deepest Truth and Kindness Is the Highest Power At the heart of every great tradition is this simple truth: Love is the essence of life. Not just romance or sentiment, but love as a radiant, unshakable presence. When that love moves into action, it manifests as kindness. And kindness doesn’t mean weakness—it’s strength under wisdom’s guidance. To grow in this kind of love is to become more fully human, which is another term for more connected to the divine. 5. You Become What You Practice This one is carved into every tradition—and now verified by neuroscience: What you repeat gets stronger. In ancient terms: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” Modern neuroscience puts it this way: Neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that your attention—and your habits—literally shape the architecture of your brain. So, what you practice daily—whether it’s judgement and fear, or gratitude and patience - becomes the blueprint of your inner life. 6. Gratitude Opens the Heart and Expands Consciousness The ancient ones knew it. And now neuroscience confirms it. When you begin to see life as a gift, everything starts to shift the more grateful you become of it. And Gratitude isn’t just a virtue—it’s a form of perception. It quiets the craving mind and awakens a deeper presence. Suddenly, you’re not waiting for “more” to feel whole. You begin to see how much has already been given. And that soft opening of the heart that you feel within? That’s consciousness expanding. 7. Life Is a School for the Soul This one can change your life. When you see life as a school, everything becomes part of the curriculum. Adversity isn’t punishment—it’s instruction. Each loss, betrayal, or hardship carries within it a hidden message, a deeper lesson. The soul came here to grow. And when you see that, you start to see that Life isn’t happening to you. It’s happening for you. And nothing—absolutely nothing—is wasted on the soul. 8. Everything Is Connected—There Is No Real Separation We live in a world of apparent separateness. But beneath the surface, everything is woven together. Ancient mystics knew this. So did the early Native Americans. As Chief Seattle said: “Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life—he is merely a strand in it.” Modern science agrees. From quantum physics to ecology to trauma healing, it all points to one truth: There is no such thing as alone. Only all one. 9. Your Attention Is Your Greatest Power The final tenet is the hidden key: Where you place your attention, determines what grows for you. In a world full of noise, mastering your attention is an act of power—and peace. When you begin to master your attention, you begin to master your life. Whatever you feed with your focus becomes stronger. Fear? It grows. Anger? It grows. Gratitude? It grows. Love? Presence? Joy? These grow too. The game of life changes when you realize:You are the gardener. And your attention is the sun. So, in essence the Wisdom of the Ages tells us that everything outside is temporary. But what is real within you does not fade. It was never born. It will never die. It simply is. And the bottom line is that as human beings, we have far more intelligence, love, happiness, and joyful sense of purpose than we have been taught by our current culture. And the wise ones would tell us that the way to access it all is to pause, breathe and listen. The universal power of this wisdom in not far away. It is within you right now, right here. You don’t have to become anyone else.You just have to become who you already are. Tune yourself into stop chasing the illusion and start honoring the real. The path is ancient. But that’s not what matters. What matters is that it is alive within us now. It begins wherever we are, and whenever we are ready. At least that’s what they say. For me, this wisdom has been in the winner’s circle since the beginning of recorded history so – I’ll take the odds… Well, I guess this is a good time for us to stop this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open. And let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/36811590

Episode 111 - Spears and Switchblades: One Stubborn Species 05/27/2025

Episode 111 - Spears and Switchblades: One Stubborn Species Welcome back to our Podcast. and in this episode, we are going to explore the mysterious junction between human potential and the human predicament. Today, we’re diving into an idea that may sting a little at first, but, if we look closely, it might also open a hidden door to hope. It involves the unfortunate observation that while human technology, what we do, has evolved at an astonishing pace, human consciousness, who we actually are, has lagged significantly behind. Our ability to split atoms, utilize instant global communications, and code digital realities has raced ahead at lightning speed, fueling our Modern Times. But our capacity for empathy, humility, compassion and having the capacity to be able to live a peaceful, and meaningful life looks much more like we’re still stuck the Middle Ages. Which brings us to the content of this episode called “Spears and Switchblades: One Stubborn Species.” To help bring the basic idea into focus, we’re going to compare two of the most iconic love tragedies ever put on the stage: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and its mid-20th century musical reincarnation, West Side Story. Though separated by more than 350 years, these two narratives—one set in Renaissance Verona and the other in 1950s New York City—are mirrors reflecting the same fundamental human flaws. Jealousy. Tribalism. Miscommunication , Stubborness and Pride, among many others. All of which are run by an emotional impulsivity that can turn love into war, and beauty into ashes. So, the first question that we want to explore is: have we grown at all in the past 400 years? Or have we simply become more sophisticated in the weaponry that we have developed in order to kill each other more efficiently? Let’s start with the core human dynamics that drive both plays, because even though they are separated by centuries, their basic human flaws remain exactly the same. In Romeo and Juliet, two teenagers fall in love across the boundary of a family feud. The Montagues and Capulets have nursed a blood vendetta for so long that no one even remembers how it started. And it doesn’t matter anymore. They just plain hate each other. And its consequences are clear: violence in the streets, death, heartbreak, and ultimately, a double suicide. What are the dominant negative human traits here? Hatred passed down like an heirloom Honor culture run amok Impetuous emotion overpowering reason A lack of inner stillness or reflection, overcome by rage Fast forward 400 years to West Side Story, and we meet Tony and Maria, two lovers from opposing street gangs: the Jets, composed mostly of white working-class youths, and the Sharks, made up of Puerto Rican immigrants. Once again, love blossoms in hostile soil, and once again, the terrible price of primal tribal hatred is death. Different clothes, different slang, different soundtrack. Same madness. And this is the bottom line of the issue. Totally different external world, everything has changed, as well it should. After all, four hundred years have gone by and the situation facing the teenagers living in the streets of New York City would be absolutely unimaginable to the kids running around in the late 1500’s. Completely different on the outside – yet the inner madness remains exactly the same. And the ramifications of this imbalance are immense. Let’s compare the outer worlds of these two stories: Romeo and Juliet takes place in late 16th-century Verona. It’s a world without electricity, medicine as we know it, or organized police. Family ruled everything. Honor was a matter of life and death. Raw emotions emerged dramatically and physically. And the sword was both symbol and solution. West Side Story unfolds in 1950s Manhattan, post-WWII. Televisions had entered the living room. Jet engines had conquered the sky. The UN had been formed, civil rights movements were stirring. Science had given us vaccines, electricity, and refrigeration. And yet... disputes were still settled with violence. In this case, the weapon of choice was the switch blade. Anger and tribal pride still led to bloodshed. And the beauty of love still ended in the tragedy funerals. So, what changed? The world around us got faster, smarter and ever-more connected. But the world inside us? Pretty much the same old garbage pail. And one of the primary central drivers in both stories is basic tribalism—the instinct to form in-groups and out-groups. The name of the game is us-versus-them. In Romeo and Juliet, the tribes are defined by blood. In West Side Story, by race and ethnicity. In both, the borders are irrational and absolute. This human trait is ancient, seemingly almost hardwired into our survival code. We evolved in small tribes where loyalty equaled life, and strangers equaled threat. But now we live in megacities, online echo chambers where we’re still addicted to tribalism. We divide ourselves by politics, religion, race, nationality, gender identity, and more—often with a sense of inner hostility that’s far more emotional than rational. In both plays, the pride of belonging to an in-crowd becomes a major fuse. Tybalt’s stone cold sense of us and them, along with an ego based identification with personal honor won’t let him ignore Romeo’s presence at the Capulet ball. Four hundred years later, Bernardo’s defense-based sense of belonging to the Sharks won’t let him see Tony as anything but another American self-entitled Jet. In both cases, primal tribal dignity demands a serious and significant attack against the perceived enemy. So, the basic recipe for tragedy that spans the centuries remains the same: paranoid pride, mixed with anger and fear, driven by impulse and untampered by any wisdom or understanding turns into a violent weapon of darkness and death. In a certain sense, what happened to us over the years isn’t evolution at all. It’s just plain repetition Unfortunately, of course this didn’t end in the late 1950’s. Far from it. While we’ve vastly upgraded our weaponry, we’ve also developed more subtle, yet powerful ways to threaten and hurt each other, like social media shaming for example, where it becomes pretty easy to ruin someone’s life just by pressing a few buttons. In the time between William Shakespeare and Leonard Bernstein, humans invented calculus, steam engines, telegraphs, airplanes, televisions, and atomic bombs. We mapped the human genome. We put men on the moon. But we still haven’t figured out what we’re really all about. Oh, we all know how to chase things, but are these things that we’ve been programmed to chase real, or they just illusions? Maybe we’re just addicted to chasing, itself. In that regard, we’ve all heard about the tendency of dogs to chase cars. But there are two key aspects to that particular pursuit. One – the dog can never really catch the car. It is much too fast for it. And secondly – what happens if the dog actually does catch the car and we all know the answer to that – nothing. The dog can’t do anything if and when it catches the car. It's the same way for us. We’re just running after things on the outside, oblivious to who we really are and what we are really made of, not to mention what can actually make us truly happy and satisfied. And all of this goes on while we continue to improve our technology by leaps and bounds. Yet, we still don’t know how to disagree without resorting to violence. We still haven’t universally adopted the idea that every human being, regardless of their identity, has intrinsic value. We still raise children who feel unloved, unheard, or unsafe. We’re still driven by fear disguised as pride. We still confuse dominance with dignity. And we still kill the thing we love because we don’t know how to hold it. And the bottom line of it all is basically defending the inherent illusion of our ego selves, which is still at the basic foundation of our inner C-Suite. As such, we still confuse noise with strength. And we still take most the good things in our life for granted, which is truly tragic. Like Joni Mitchell sang in a seemingly earlier age, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” As it all continues to spiral further, in so many ways, the message to us is crystal clear – It’s time to wake up and grow up. Romeo and Juliet loved across a line they weren’t supposed to cross. Tony and Maria did it too. Their love was a shining light in the midst of all this darkness. Even though everything seemed to be against them, they knew what they had. And we knew it too. And despite what we knew it was that they were facing, we all rooted for them, because something about the higher thing in life, the Better Angels of Our Nature, speaks to the deepest part of our intelligence, both in our hearts and in our minds. We have more tools than ever to connect across cultures, to educate, to innovate, to heal. And yet, we still face the same old demons. But here’s the good news: we are capable of change. Unlike the characters in those plays, our story isn’t written yet. We are not locked in a script. We can choose awareness. We can choose evolution. The keynote to both of these tragedies is that it is time to individually bring our inner light to our own inner darkness. The Wisdom of the Ages as well as modern brain science tell us that we do have the power to protect this light from the winds of hate, fear and pride, and that we can, and essentially must, cultivate the inner skills of patience, compassion, empathy, and yes - courage. NeuroHarmonics: Inner Technology for a New Humanity That’s what the NeuroHarmonic Method is all about: cultivating the inner circuitry to match the brilliance of our outer inventions. It’s not just about brainwaves or affirmations or even spirituality. It’s about training the nervous system to return to equilibrium, to respond rather than react, to perceive the human being behind the mask, and ultimately to shift from emotional immaturity to presence. From the rage of vengeance to an intuitive sense grace. But this is a path toward real evolution that can only be travelled one person at a time. Because the world won’t evolve until we do it individually. Not really. So here we are, somewhere between Shakespeare’s Verona and the 21st century, still caught in the drama. But I hate to tell you that the Bard didn’t invent this particular tale. The truth is, it stands atop a mountain of ancient stories echoing the same theme—love thwarted by fate, culture, or conflict. And this motif is not unique to the Renaissance or even to Western civilization. The same basic story can be found in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Babylon, ancient Egypt, Persia, and India. Indeed, it’s one of the most enduring themes in human storytelling. And the deeper you dig, the further back you go, the more you realize: the tragedy of love versus society and the battle of light versus darkness is as old as storytelling itself. But maybe, just maybe, we’re ready to write a different ending. One where love doesn’t die. One where pride yields to peace. One where technology finally partners with wisdom. Let’s imagine a future version of West Side Story, maybe 400 years from now. What would it take for that version not to be a tragedy? Maybe the gangs might still exist, but their interchange would consist of words instead of weapons. Maybe love would not be hidden in the shadows, but declared in daylight. Maybe reconciliation would be taught in schools, right alongside science and math. Maybe forgiveness would be considered a mark of strength, not weakness. Consciousness evolution would be about not just developing new tools, but new tendencies, moving us from: From reaction to reflection From judgment to curiosity From pride to presence From tribalism to universalism It means valuing not just intelligence, but wisdom. This all represents something to look forward to and welcome into our lives in the here and now, as much as we are able. And if we’re not able to yet, at least we can make our intentions known to ourselves. Well, this will be the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/36624285

Episode 110 - Symphony in a Second 05/20/2025

Episode 110 - Symphony in a Second In the next two episodes we’re going to look at certain sets of facts that are designed to do just one thing – to help us to stop taking things for granted so that we can begin to see how incredibly special this life is for us, and how truly amazing our actual potential is as human beings. When we begin to grasp and understand this viewpoint, so many things can positively change for us, both Within You and Without You, as George Harrison sang all those years ago. Now given the nearly absurd nature of how quickly things move in this life of ours in this allegedly civilized world of ours, it’s amazing that we have time to even think at all, let alone focus on some of the deeper elements of life that lend true meaning to our existence. We are constantly bombarded by so much messaging that our brains become literally numb to anything that takes more than just a few minutes to consider. Our exposure to all this messaging is 4 to 10 times greater than it was just ten years ago. But given all this, both the Wisdom of the Ages as well as modern neuroscience insist that this life holds amazing potential for us to evolve as beings and grow into levels of meaning, happiness, and satisfaction that are absolutely remarkable, and more than well worth the effort of simply opening up to them. So, to get started in this tour of the miraculous, let’s begin at the beginning – the beginning of our overall story as a species, because if we want to understand who we are, and ultimately grow into the best possible versions of ourselves, it really is essential to know where we came from, which will help us gain a deeper understanding of what an absolute miracle it is that we are here at all. And the process of cultivating a profound sense of appreciation for the miracle of life that we are being given every moment of every day, is the real beginning of our joyful journey to higher ground. So, let’s take a deep breath and travel back roughly 300,000 years ago, to the emergence of our species—Homo sapiens—on this planet. When you give yourself time to really pause and reflect on this, you begin to see that our origins are both humbling, as well as awe-inspiring. Scientists estimate that over the course of Earth’s history, somewhere between 5 billion and 50 billion different species have evolved. Now that’s truly a staggering number, but here’s the real kicker and it’s a bigger number: about 99 percent of them have gone extinct. This means that entire species came into existence, thrived for a while, and then, due to environmental shifts, predators, disasters, or simply because they just couldn’t adapt, they disappeared, and they disappeared forever. Which brings us to a profound and rather unsettling question: why not us? Why didn’t we, too, disappear like so many countless others? It’s an obvious question because, after all, if you look at the big picture, human beings aren’t exactly a strong pick for survival. We are not the biggest animals. We are not the strongest. We’re certainly not the fastest, and in terms of physical defenses, we’re laughably weak. No fangs. No claws. No protective armor. Not to mention the fact that we can’t even fly. As a result of this, our position on the food chain is ridiculously low. Think about trying to run away from a cheetah, or outswim a shark and we’d lose the fight every time. And in terms of pure survival, put a naked human being in a fight to the death against a little squirrel and the squirrel would take us out in seconds. With its sharp claws and its ability to jump into attack mode, it would rip out our eyes and slit our throats almost instantaneously. What can we do with just our bare hands? And that’s just a fight with a relatively small creature. Let’s not even think about our survival odds barehanded against a lion, a tiger or a bear. On top of all this, when it comes to reproduction, the odds of our survival get even more pathetic. We have a comparatively small number of offspring and our infants are born completely helpless. Indeed, a human baby is probably the most vulnerable creature on Earth. It takes them years to become even remotely self-sufficient, which makes us an extreme outlier in the animal kingdom, where many creatures are walking and foraging within hours of birth. So, from a statistical standpoint, according to the laws of the survival of the fittest, we should have been wiped out long ago. Yet, we’re still here. And not only did we survive, but we’ve thrived, eventually becoming the dominant life form on the planet. So, how in the world did this happen? What was the game-changer? What was nature’s secret ingredient that allowed this vulnerable, physically weak and unimpressive species to outmaneuver and outlast so many others? The answer, of course, is sitting quietly inside of each and every one of our skulls right now: the human brain. It’s easy to overlook, but this small, three-pound organ—about the size of a medium cantaloupe—is nothing short of a miracle of evolution. Though it occupies less than 100 cubic inches, it is, without question, the most sophisticated masterpiece every produced by nature. Packed with approximately 100 billion neurons, each one connected to thousands of others, it forms a vast and intricate network capable of truly astonishing things. Each neuron can fire between 200 - 1,000 times per second, so we’re talking speeds in the milliseconds here. Truly astounding! At first, our ancestors' brains gave them the ability to craft simple tools—sharp-edged stones that allowed them to cut, scrape, and build in ways no other species could. But that was just the beginning of the revolution. With those primitive tools, we began to rewrite the rules of survival. But then something truly incredible happened. It is largely hypothesized that at first, all we humans were running on was pure instinct. We didn’t have the ability to think rational thought. Suddenly, at some point, for reasons unknown, our brains took on a third more fat and we developed our prefrontal cortex. We became able to think rational thought and language developed, vastly expanding our capabilities, followed by writing, and everything really started to change for us because we could evolve and pass our understanding beyond the barriers of time and space. Over time, we became hunters, gatherers, farmers, builders, and eventually, creators of civilization itself. As millennia passed, this remarkable brain of ours allowed us to harness fire, cultivate crops, construct shelter, and later, to write poetry, compose symphonies, and build spacecraft that could escape Earth’s gravity. So, we each have our own modern human brain and let’s take a look at it from a modern perspective, which reveals a most remarkable fact: it’s estimated that it would take a dozen of the most advanced computers in the world about 45 hours to perform what your brain does in just one second. Think about that for a moment. And then take it one step further, our brain is involved in a key area that no computer will ever be able to touch – it can feel! And boy can it feel. We can literally feel hundreds of millions of different feelings. We don’t have the time here to get into all this here, but you get the point. You are walking around every day with a mind of such complexity, speed, and brilliance that it outshines the most cutting-edge machines ever built. And yet, most of us rarely, if ever, give it any thought, let alone tap into even a fraction of its potential. This brings us to an essential insight: while our brain is the very thing that has allowed us to survive and dominate, it is also the key to something even much greater than all of this – It is the key to our growth, our transformation, and, yes, even our happiness. Now, evolution didn’t just stop when we made it to the top of the food chain. The brain itself is a dynamic, ever-changing organ. Through the miracle of neuroplasticity, it is constantly rewiring, adapting, and evolving in response to what we think, feel, and experience. So, our brain truly is an incredible masterpiece. But let’s not forget: with great power comes great responsibility. The very intelligence that has given us so much can also lead us terribly astray. It is capable of fear, anxiety, self-sabotage, and truly destructive habits. We see this everywhere—from personal struggles with self-worth to global crises fueled by greed and lust for power. Our human brain is a real double-edged sword. It can create miracles—or it can create truly horrible mayhem. That’s why conscious evolution is so critical now, perhaps more than ever. We are at a pivotal point in human history where the challenges we face—whether ecological, political, or psychological—demand a new level of awareness and intentionality. And this is where the NeuroHarmonic Method comes in. Designed to consciously engage the brain’s natural capacity for growth and transformation, it’s about learning to harness your neural wiring in ways that uplift your life, enhance your clarity, and empower you to live with purpose, compassion as well as passion, and peace. It is a framework for harmonizing your intelligence with your highest aspirations. The same brain that once helped your ancestors carve flint and build fires can now be tuned—harmonized, if you will—to unlock your deepest potential. Imagine what your life would look like if you could access more of your brain’s innate power—not just for survival, but for true flourishing. What if you could train your mind to break free from limiting beliefs, to rewire patterns of fear and doubt, and to create new habits of joy, resilience, and creativity? What if you could harmonize your inner world so beautifully that it naturally radiates out to transform your outer world as well? This is not a pipe dream. This is the promise of the NeuroHarmonic Method. And it begins with recognizing where we’ve come from and nurturing a deep sense of gratitude for life itself, as well as for the evolutionary miracle of the human brain. And it continues with a commitment to expanding your awareness of that miracle within yourself, day by day, breath by breath. We have some rather detailed plans regarding the release of the NeuroHarmonic Method which will include a revolutionary new book and a powerful website that will host many different innovative formats including video presentations and a specially trained NeuroHarmonic Artificial Intelligence Service. And I’d like to close this episode with a poem that was co-produced with this service. When I was researching the part of this podcast that dealt with the remarkable idea that it would take a dozen of the world’s most advanced computers over 45 hours to do what our brain does in just one second, we decided to put that information into an artistic form and ended up writing this poem. Pay close attention to the words because it really sums up the deeper meanings of this episode. It’s called “The Symphony in a Second,” and see if this rings any inner bells for you… In a single second, your brain conducts a symphony no machine can follow— light enters your eyes, and is not only seen but recognized, interpreted, remembered, and folded into the ongoing narrative of you. Your breath adjusts without command. Your heart adapts to emotion before you speak its name. Memories rise like whispers, and feelings surface like the wind before a storm. You balance the physics of posture, weigh the weight of a word, and anticipate the consequences of a choice you haven’t even made yet. In that same second, dozens of the world’s greatest computers—humming in bunkers, consuming megawatts— would still be struggling to simulate the visual field of a child watching a butterfly land. And yet you do it while thinking about dinner, holding a loved one’s hand, and remembering a song from thirty years ago. This is not processing. This is presence. This is not code. This is consciousness. The marvel is not just that the brain is faster— it’s that it is alive. Aware. Awake. And, when tuned rightly, capable of touching the Infinite. So, that’s the end of this episode. As always, keep you eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/36624220

Episode 109 - Science Meets The Soul 05/13/2025

Episode 109 - Science Meets The Soul As you may recall, we began the last episode by saying that we are deeply involved with preparations for the release of our next project, “The NeuroHaronic Method.” As a short introduction to it, I discussed two critical times in my life that helped lay the foundations for my lifelong study of personal growth. These were the metaphysical events that surrounded the sudden death of my father followed by my unexpected introduction to the idea that there has been a deep level of wisdom that has manifested itself in every human culture since the beginning of civilization. This remarkable intelligence is commonly called the “Wisdom of the Ages” and is by no means limited to ancient times. Now, in this episode, we’re going to complete that part of the story and then we will go into a deeper overview of the “NeuroHarmonic Method” itself. Again, the purpose of all of this is to present you with ideas that you may find useful as you continue your own path of personal growth, which in my view, is a journey that we are all on in one way or another, because the innate desire for real growth is deeply tied to authentic human happiness. Some of us have begun to realize that we are on this quest and some of us haven’t. Yet. I ended the last episode with a short description of the course that I took in college that was simply called – World Religions, which started to open my eyes to the prospect of evolving my own consciousness. Prior to that, I never even considered the idea. The next important thing that happened to me in this regard took place in the early part of 1968 when I, along with the 70 million other baby boomers I came in with, heard the news that the Beatles had travelled to India to study meditation. Besides being a major global media event, they were actually making some kind of a statement about inner growth, which was in absolute congruence with the music that they were making at the time. Not only were they deeply involved with the process of changing Western Culture, by extension they were also affecting the entire world. Personally, since my generation first came under their spell in 1964, I basically did whatever they did. I mirrored their hair style and eventually their drug use, along with their overall counterculture understandings. So, because they started studying with a teacher known as the Maharishi, by early 1970, I had gone to his outpost in Philadelphia and started doing what is known as Transcendental Meditation, which was a form of mantra meditation. Of course I wasn’t what you might call a “sincere seeker,” I was still just a devotee of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Still, I practiced that form on and off for about a year but I stayed pretty much on the surface. Eventually though, along with the changing times, my quest for inner truth got deeper and I ran into a rather profound form of meditation that finally began to melt the inner ice that had frozen my insides for so many years. Since then, I’ve explored and experienced several dozen other approaches as well, including some rather advanced mindfulness modalities, but that one form of meditation that I started back then, has continued to be the basic foundation to my overall approach. Again, this is just some background to set the stage for the emergence and creation of the “NeuroHarmonic Method” and in that vein, something critical happened to me about ten years ago, when I started to learn about of a certain set of understandings that was becoming popular among some brilliant neuroscientists and psychotherapists. They had begun to examine the effects of meditation, contemplation, and mindfulness on the neurology of the people who regularly practice these methods and their findings were astounding. This was especially true regarding something called neuroplasticity, which is our brain’s remarkable ability to physically transform itself, a truly amazing feat which it does constantly, The implications of these neurological validations of the positive effects of certain methods of personal growth are massive because they confirm a major idea that we can each wholeheartedly embrace and that is that we are not stuck! We’re not stuck with the negativity we carry. We’re not stuck with where we are at all, and most importantly, we are not even stuck with who we are. We can positively reshape the way our brain works, which changes the way we see ourselves and our lives in the world, which basically changes everything. Again, we were born with this ability and we still have it. So, to sum up this part of the story, this whole world of personal growth is truly a game changer and I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved with it for close to fifty-five years. And I’ll add with all humility, that there is a decent chance that I might be starting to scratch the actual surface of it! Now to make a very long story very short, this is, in essence what has led to the development of the NeuroHarmonic Method. So let’s move on to a fairly quick overview of it, which I hope you’ll find inspiring. It has emerged over what has basically been a lifetime of experience, study, and inner exploration. You've been hearing echoes of it in some podcast episodes, woven into stories and reflections, and maybe you’ve even experienced an occasional “aha” moment from some of its information. But now, I’d like to offer a fuller view of what it is, and why I believe it may hold real value for people in all walks and stages of life. Again, the NeuroHarmonic Method was not born in a lab or a university classroom, although its roots certainly drink from the well of neuroscience. Nor did it spring fully formed from a single moment of insight. It came together gradually, over many decades, from lived experience, long meditation, and a commitment to understanding both the workings of the human mind and the deeper currents of consciousness that flow beneath the surface. Also, as I’ve mentioned in a few earlier episodes, I’ve spent over five decades of serious study with a talented and deeply profound meditation teacher whose work reaches beyond theory and technique to a direct experience of an extrtemely joyful, yet profoundly peaceful state of awareness. At the same time, I’ve been a lifelong student of human intelligence as it manifests throughout the brain and nervous system—how it functions, how it breaks down, and how, under the right conditions, it can harmonize with its own, inherently higher states of being. The NeuroHarmonic Method lives at the intersection of those two streams: ancient spiritual insight and modern neuroscience, so in a broader context, you could say that this is “Where Science Meets the Soul.” So, essentially, what ss NeuroHarmonics? At its heart, the NeuroHarmonic Method is about attunement. It’s an easy, yet practical way of harmonizing your brain and nervous system so you can resonate with your own higher frequencies of truth, clarity, and love. Just as a musical instrument can be tuned to produce harmonious sound, so too can the mind-body system be gently brought into alignment with its natural, unburdened state. But here’s the key: we’re not just talking about mental wellness or stress reduction, though these often happen along the way. This is about a truly transformational alignment. The NeuroHarmonics process tunes your entire being—your breath, thoughts, feelings, attention, and even your past—into coherence with the deeper intelligence that animates life itself. This is not a belief system. It’s a method of practice. This is something that you do, and the results are experiential. Let’s start with the breath, which is appropriate because that’s where life began for each one of us – it started when we took in our first breath, and obviously it ends when we breathe our last one out. But the power of the breath goes beyond even that. The breath is the portal to the animating force of life within, and naturally, breath is central to the NeuroHarmonic Method. Not just as a relaxation tool, but as a living bridge—a thread that connects your conscious awareness with the ever-present rhythm of your existence. And we’re not just speaking of oxygen exchange here. It’s something subtler. The breath becomes a way of remembering presence itself. It becomes the moment-by-moment invitation to return—to come back from the endless distractions of the mind and rest again in the comforting reality of the fact that you are alive. Through this breath-centered awareness, the nervous system can begin to down-regulate from stress, anxiety, and hypervigilance. But even more than that, it can begin to entrain with something greater. It can tune in to what we call our own NeuroHarmonic Frequencies, which are states of being that are marked by deep calm, clear focus, inner joy, and spiritual receptivity. Now let’s turn our attention to our overall consciousness itself and look at what we call The Jumping Monkey and the Silent Signal. In the podcast episodes, you’ve heard me talk about the “jumping monkey” of the ordinary mind. This refers to that incessant inner narrator who’s always leaping from one concern to the next, dragging us along like an annoying, impatient child in a toy store. But even beyond that, this is the foundational source of our nagging self-sabotage, which is at the very root of most of our issues. The NeuroHarmonic Method doesn’t fight this monkey part of the mind. It doesn’t suppress or judge it. Instead, it re-educates its attention. We learn to feel the difference between the monkey’s chatter and the silent signal that’s always present beneath it. That signal is often felt as a quiet invitation toward peace. Sometimes it’s experienced as an inner warmth. Other times, as clarity, lightness, or a kind of gravitational pull toward stillness. That signal is always there. It is part of our higher mind and what changes is our availability to receive it. Critically NeuroHarmonics trains us to step into that availability. The next part of this quick examination deals with life’s difficulties, disappointments, and challenges. Now for me, I don’t need to pretend that my life has been particularly easy. Of course, everything is relative, but I’ve certainly had my fair share of significant difficulties. As Bob Dylan once wrote “If you don’t believe there’s price for this sweet paradise, just remind me to show you the scars.” To one degree or another, we all know what he’s talking about there. For me, there were countless times when things fell apart just as they were coming together. Interlaced with periods of fatigue, heartbreak, and confusion, and accompanied by that certain exhaustion that comes not just from effort, but from the friction of experiencing constantly unfulfilled potential. At times, my life felt like I was living an enforced version of that famous Winston Churchill quote, “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” But NeuroHarmonics isn’t about denying or bypassing life’s challenges. It’s about metabolizing them by finding the harmonic resonance within every event, even the ones that threaten to undo us. Because even the most painful experiences contain higher, hidden frequencies which you can learn how to resonate with, if you learn how to listen carefully enough. So, this is an ideal place for us to stop. We’ll continue along these lines in the coming episodes because in reality, we’re just getting warmed up. As always, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/36430530

Episode 108 - Too Obvious Conclusions 05/06/2025

Episode 108 - Too Obvious Conclusions As we resume our regular podcast series, the Better Angels Publishing Company is about to embark on its next phase which will feature our newest release, “The NeuroHarmonic Approach,” with its catch-phrase, “Harmonize Your Intelligence - Transform Your Life.” Now, obviously, that’s quite a mouthful, but this is a significantly powerful and innovative program and it’s evolved quite a bit over the past year, so, I’d like to give you quick overview of where it stands now and I think you’ll be fascinated by the information. Also, as with everything that we produce, our intention is to create a resource that you can use to help you achieve your highest goals as you continue along your own path of personal growth, which is by nature, in a constant state of evolution, expansion and change. So, let’s dig into some of its basics. And as we do, I suggest that you engage in what is often called the “Beginner’s Mind,” which means approaching the material as though you’re hearing it for the first time - even if you’ve encountered similar concepts before. When you do that, you naturally let go of old frameworks, open to a fresh perspective and new insights tend to appear. I know that’s always been my experience over the years. To put it into context, the origins of the NeuroHarmonic Approach began with some extremely deep experiences that I had many years ago, so let me offer a bit of the backstory, to help you get a sense of how this work came to be, which might help enhance the overall meaning of the material. As you may be aware, the central focus of my adult life has been the exploration and practice of what we’ve come to call personal growth, which is a path of self-discovery that emphasizes the deepening of awareness. The seed of this pursuit was planted several decades ago, with the sudden death of my father. At age sixteen, it was a devastating shock for me, but it was also accompanied by certain experiences that, for lack of a better word, I can only describe as being metaphysical. I’ve talked about these before, in my memoir Wilt, Ike & Me, and in some earlier podcast episodes, but for the purposes of this introduction, I want to touch on them here again, briefly. First, the night before he died, I had a vivid, precognitive dream of exactly how I would learn of his death. In precise detail, it included the exact time and place, as well as all of the people who were involved. Then the dream came true the very next night, exactly the way I had dreamt it. Living through those moments is still one of the most unusual experiences I’ve ever had, because it was like going through a strange blend of past, present and future, almost like being in a déjà vu that lasted for several minutes. Then, about six months later, I had another remarkable dream. In it, my father appeared to me - joyful and full of life. When I asked him about his death, he smiled and told me that he It wasn’t real. “There is no death,” he said. “It’s just a public relations stunt that God came up with to get people to think about Him. That’s all that it is.” At that point in the dream, he had me give him back his ring, which I had been wearing regularly since his passing. When he touched the ring, the whole room turned into light and I woke up. Then in waking life, just a few hours later that same day, his ring mysteriously disappeared from my locker during gym class - even though the locker was clearly locked and undisturbed, and everything else inside was untouched, including my watch, my other gold ring and my wallet with some cash in it. Although I’ve described these circumstances many times, I’ve never been able to truly express what they really did to me. But in hindsight, it’s obvious that these events marked a time when some seeds of deep change were planted within me, even though they would take several years to unfold. After some time, I came to two powerful conclusions. The first one is that there is far more to this life than meets the eye. Even though we think we’re in an advanced society, we actually understand very little about what’s really happening here. Thomas Edison once put it this way, “We don’t know one millionth of one percent about anything.” And this was from a major genius who is still considered to be one of the greatest inventors of all time. The fact that this was his point of view should speak volumes to us. So I began to ask myself – Even if it was just in a dream, how could I have experienced a precise visual precognition of events that hadn’t happened yet? The details in that dream had been crystal clear and when the events happened in reality, it was 100% accurate. What does that say about the nature of time? It was completely confusing tome, and of course I’m not alone. Even Einstein himself once said that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. Now obviously, I’m no Einstein and probably neither are you. Also, I had to wonder - how could my father’s ring have vanished into thin air when I knew without question that the locker was locked and undisturbed when I got back from gym, let alone the fact that my watch, my other ring and my wallet with cash in it were all still there. It made no sense. It simply defied all logic. So, the two dreams – the precognitive one of his death, and the one where I gave him back his ring and then it mysteriously disappeared the next day, put the seeds of some deep thoughts in my head. Which makes sense, because as you can imagine, this sudden and major disruption of time, space and logic was a pretty big deal for an average sixteen-year-old kid. Which brings me to the second conclusion I drew from those days. My father’s dramatic death was totally unanticipated. The massive heart attack that he suffered took him instantly, and neither he nor any of the rest of our family had the slightest idea that a tragedy of this magnitude was about to befall us. For me, this rude introduction to your world being turned upside down by a sudden death drove home the undeniable fact that life can change, or end, at any moment. It happened to him and it could just as easily happen to me. So, like a thief in the night, the idea of the ultimate ticking time bomb got planted somewhere deep within me. As I began to live my life in the new reality that followed, on a deep intuitive level, while I sensed that it was important to resolve the existential questions that were beginning to appear within my mind, the ticking time bomb kept reminding me that I better get on with it because I might not have that much more time. Of course, we’re all in the same boat on this, because regardless of external appearances, nobody has any guarantees here. These events happened nearly sixty years ago. This is how I felt about it all back then. And this is how I still feel now. To continue on this track of early experiences that became critical to my interest in personal growth, during college, I took a course called World Religions. Now I wasn’t a serious student at all. In fact, it would be a stretch to consider me a student at all. Academics were more like a nuisance you had to deal with while you lived rest of your college life. The freedom of it alone was intoxicating. The times had gotten pretty crazy back then and as far as being a student, you could say that I had the attention span of a housefly mixed with the philosophical depth of a skunk, so the general odor emanating from my academic life wasn’t all that pleasant. With that being said, I don’t even remember why I took World Religions. I’m sure I didn’t have any real interest in it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I took it because it might have been a “gut course,” which in the parlance of my esteemed fraternity, meant that it didn’t require much work to be able to get a good grade. As you can extrapolate, I had gotten in with a pretty smart bunch of guys. Anyway, I ended up in this class and to my extreme surprise, after a little while, I became quite interested in it. We studied all of the world’s major religions and the teacher’s point of view was that in essence, they all had the exact same basic understanding, which was that there is one God, who is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. And as human beings, each one of us has come here to grow into the best possible being that we can and that individually we can grow out of the world’s chaos, emerge into the higher realms and ultimately merge with God, even while we’re still alive. In fact, according to him, you could say that this is the actual purpose of life here. As you can surmise, the teacher was quite a learned man and taught that this universal truth that contained all of these deeper understandings, was generally known as the “Wisdom of the Ages.” Now one thing I’ve learned in my life is that you never know when something profound is going to come into our consciousness and take you in a new direction. You often don’t see it coming and you don’t know why or how it happens. It just does. In this case, I wasn’t looking for anything other than just an easy way to get a good grade that would boost my cumulative average, so that I could get into a major law school. But without having the slightest idea about it, I subtly found myself moving down a completely different track, and unwittingly, this whole “Wisdom of the Ages” thing took up residence somewhere deep in the back of my mind. There was just something new and gripping about the whole thing The concept that there was a universal truth that had been expressing itself through wise men and women in every culture since the beginning of human history was brand new to me. It was also the first time I had seen beyond the walls of different religious dogmas to the view that essentially, they all had the same basic message - that as a human being, you could somehow evolve your consciousness and then actually merge heart, mind, and soul with God. It was all deeply intriguing. Not to mention the fact that the wise ones said the bliss of living in this elevated state of being was beyond human comprehension. It really captured my imagination. And on top of all this, the American status quo was crumbling from the mushrooming counter-culture movement, Marijuana and psychodelia seemed to be everywhere, fueling it along, and the mind-expanding music that played our soundtrack saw to it that we never missed a beat. You get the picture. And I’d also like to add one of my favorite quotes about those days from the great comedic master, Robin Williams who always insisted, “If you can remember the sixties, you weren’t really there.” Well, this is a great place for us to stop. We’ll continue the journey in the coming episodes, so as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/36430415

Episode 107 - Hail and Farewell 06/18/2024

Episode 107 - Hail and Farewell The last episode ended on the evening of April 5, 1968. I was unexpectedly leaving Washington DC as my college had been abruptly shut down following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I was in a friend’s car and as I looked back, I could see that the clouds in the darkening sky were flickering red, reflecting the light of the fires that were burning, as violence had begun to break out in the city. Within a week, 1,200 buildings had been burned, 12 people were killed and 14,000 federal troops were still occupying the nation’s capital. Now even though the murder of Dr. King was one of the most tragic and deeply disturbing events that could possibly have happened, I am not going to focus on the assassination itself, or on the profoundly traumatic effect that it had on the country. Thousands of articles have been written about it by hundreds of authors who have a much deeper understanding of history than I do. Instead, for the purposes of this podcast series, which again focuses on the ways that consciousness began to evolve in those days, as witnessed through my own personal lens, there are a few key points that I would like to bring up. The first one is that Dr. King was a far greater figure than the iconic public servant that is presented in the current annals of American history. Even though he was one of the primary founders of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as one of the nation’s most inspirational orators, there was much more to him than that. He had a highly enlightened view of human potential as well as of its ultimate destiny. As such, he was continually expressing some of the deepest essential truths concerning human wisdom and understanding. In reality, he was at the very forefront of the enormous expansion of consciousness that was beginning to take shape back then. And it is truly hard to grasp how far ahead of his time he really was. The easiest way to realize this is by looking at his lofty position on non-violence, both as a means for resolving conflict, as well as for moving the evolution of humanity forward. For the sake of clarity, let’s compare it with the law of the jungle, which has been the basic modus operandi of humanity since civilization began. As a species, our knee-jerk reaction to the seemingly dog-eat-dog world we live in can be summed up in one basic phrase - might makes right. It began in the time of the caveman, as tribe fought against tribe, and over time, man began the process of inventing weaponry. Primitive spears and clubs turned into bows and arrows and swords. And thus, the arms race began. To our great misfortune, it has continued, unabated since then and the constant development of ever-increasing firepower has only served to heat things up. Tragically, even though times have changed dramatically, this basic concept of settling disputes has remained exactly the same. When push comes to shove, we resort to good old fashioned brute force. From the one-on-one fist fight, all the way up to massive conflagrations fought between millions of soldiers, it’s still the same old story. One side prevails due to its superior weaponry, along with its unbridled willingness to inflict severe pain and death on the other side. And of course, it doesn’t matter how many innocent people have to suffer and die. What difference does that make when it comes to getting what you want? Now, even though this unenlightened unconsciousness has remained unchanged since the dawn of human history, remarkably, throughout every era, certain people have emerged who seem to be tapped into a deeper level of understanding. With a higher and more compassionate perspective, non-violence is usually the central theme of their approach and from a very early age, Dr. King was clearly one of them. Indeed, he spent his entire short life trying to elevate human awareness to this higher viewpoint. At the root of his understandings was the work of Mahatma Gandhi, whose brilliant use of non-violence helped overthrow the brutal British rule that had subjugated the Indian people for nearly a century. His interest in Gandhi grew over time, and following his successes with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, Dr. King felt the desire to travel to India to gain a deeper understanding of the life and teachings of this unlikely, yet remarkable leader. Finally, on February 3, 1959, he and his party, which included his wife, departed for a six-week visit to the ancient land. “To other countries I may go as a tourist,” he told reporters when he arrived at the airport. “But to India I come as a pilgrim.” His aim was to study how political goals can be accomplished through the use of non-violent methods, rather than through the use of brute force. According to Gandhi, it was the fundamental difference between using the higher parts of our hearts and minds, rather than just relying upon the primitive, survival-based impulses of anger and fear. The visit proved to be an extremely powerful experience for him and he stated that it had helped clarify and empower his dedication to alleviate “the suffering, the exploitation, the injustice, and the degradation of human beings.” These noble, universal feelings had only grown since his return, and when he formally came out against the war in Vietnam, he also stood against the horrible injustices of the economic exploitation practiced by “capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out, with no concern for the social betterment of the countries.” Along with his stance on non-violence, there is one associated factor regarding the tragedy of the King assassination that I would like to mention at this point. In general, as far as race relations in the United State had been concerned, black people had always been delegated into a fundamentally subservient position in the society. While it was within their civil rights to express their views regarding the racial injustices that existed in the country, it was always firmly understood that it had to be done in a basically respectful and civil manner. But that mindset had begun to change a bit in the mid-sixties, and it was brought into focus on March 6, 1964, when Cassius Clay, the young boxer who had just become the heavyweight champion of the world, changed his name to Muhammed Ali and announced that he had joined the Nation of Islam, which was also known as the Black Muslims. This controversial movement was part of a larger sentiment that had been gathering momentum that became known as “Black Pride” or “Black Power.” Along those general lines, the Black Panther Party was formed just two years later. I remember these developments very clearly, and in particular, I was struck by something that Malcom X once said. An extremely charismatic leader, as the chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam, he summed up the emerging point of view in a way which I found to be particularly clarifying. “If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. The progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they won't even admit the knife is there." Now, of course Dr. King clearly understood the sentiments and feelings behind this point of view, but he never wavered on the issue of non-violence. As an ordained minister who took his work extremely seriously, the idea of using violence to accomplish the goal was completely out of the question. As such, he felt that the motto of Black Power represented “essentially an emotional concept” that meant “different things to different people.” Even though it “was born from the wombs of despair and disappointment…and is a cry of pain,” he had deep concerns that “the slogan was an unwise choice,” because it carried “connotations of violence and separatism.” In his view, the real way to create change was to amass political and economic power, and then use it to achieve ennobling change. As far as the higher destiny of the country was concerned, he believed that “America must be made a nation in which its multi-racial people are partners in power.” Now, the truly remarkable thing about Dr. King is that he had the ethical and moral standing to bridge the gap between the various viewpoints and promote a more inclusive path. And this basic fact makes his loss to the country and to humanity itself all the more tragic. With all of this in mind, the outpouring of grief that followed the assassination was staggering. The funeral was set for Sunday, April 7th in Atlanta, and in an official proclamation, President Johnson declared it to be a National Day of Mourning. All sporting and theatrical events were to be postponed, with all flags lowered to half-staff. Of course, not everyone in the country was aligned with the idea of paying respect to the memory of Dr. King. Lester Maddox, the staunchly segregationist governor of Georgia always looked upon King as a major villain, who had no right stirring up the black population to go against the venerated laws and traditions of the South. As funeral arrangements were being made, the governor was approached with the idea of having Dr. King’s body lie in state in the Capitol building in Atlanta, but he flatly refused. On top of that, he declared that no flags in the state of Georgia would be lowered to half-staff either. When his position was relayed to Washington, although the federal government had no power over his refusal regarding the use of the state Capitol, it did have the power to enforce the lowering of all flags in the nation, so the flags in Georgia were lowered in accordance with the decree. The funeral itself became an iconic moment in American history. At first, the city of Atlanta estimated that about ten thousand people would be in attendance. But by the time of the funeral approached, it became clear that this estimate was way off. It took place on April 9, 1968, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was born and raised, and began with a private ceremony at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King had co-pastored with his father. The intimate service was attended by just family and friends. But then something truly extraordinary happened. A four-mile long funeral procession began from the church to Morehouse College, which was King's alma mater. King’s coffin was placed on a simple wooden wagon which was pulled by two mules. As the procession got underway, approximately one hundred thousand people joined in and walked along with it. The global media coverage was extensive. Major American networks broadcasted the event live, which allowed millions of viewers across the country to participate in the intense feeling of collective mourning. Throughout the country, people who were driving in their cars spontaneously turned on their headlights, as though they were driving in a funeral procession. The simple wooden cart being pulled by two mules highlighted King's commitment to the struggles of the poor and marginalized in society, while the throng that walked behind the coffin was also filled with hundreds of major celebrities who had flown in to show their respects. Leaders from the field of government and politics were mixed with the top tier of the county’s athletes and entertainers. The list of notables who walked in that somber procession is far too large to include here. Again, as I’ve mentioned regarding the JFK assassination, I wouldn’t even try to put into words what it all felt like. Let’s just say that the injustice and the hopelessness of it was simply overwhelming, And on top of it all, the fact that one of history’s major apostles of non-violence was brutally murdered for what he stood for was far beyond ironic and it soon became gasoline added to the fire; significant violence erupted in more than 125 American cities across 29 states. Nearly 50,000 federal troops occupied America’s urban areas. Thirty-nine people were killed and 3,500 injured. These uprisings produced more property damage, arrests, and injuries than any other uprising of the 1960s. In all, it was just a truly, horrible feeling, and with that, let’s end this sad episode here. But even so, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/31651282

Episode 106 - Too Quick 06/11/2024

Episode 106 - Too Quick In the last episode, we took a quick look back at Robert F. Kennedy’s rise to the senate in November of 1964. Then we mentioned that in 1967, the soon to be anti-war candidate, Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy had approached him with the idea of opposing President Lyndon Johnson for the nomination of the Democratic Party for President of the United States. But Kennedy had quickly turned the idea down. Now back to early 1968. Everybody knew that Bobby was certainly no friend of LBJ’s. They had a long and well-known history of animosity between them. But again, for many significant reasons, he didn’t think the timing was right to mount a challenge against a sitting president, so he just stayed in the wings and watched Gene McCarthy try to take him on. Then on March 12, 1968, something completely unexpected happened. The largely unknown senator from Minnesota, whose grass roots campaign had been largely run by a group of underfunded student volunteers, made a truly significant showing in the New Hampshire primary, and it proved to be a shocking upset. Lyndon Johnson, who had the powerful name recognition of the incumbent, was well-funded and well organized with a huge staff of seasoned supporters. But he won only 49.4 per cent of the vote. And incredibly, McCarthy won a remarkable 42.2 per cent, which really took everyone by surprise. Suddenly it became obvious that the anti-Johnson, anti-war sentiment in the country was far larger and deeper than anyone had calculated. Overnight, the equation had clearly changed and Johnson was not as firmly in the driver’s seat as he seemed to be. And as you can imagine, the outcome caught Senator Kennedy’s attention as well. Now, there have been several biographies about RFK written over the years and many of them have examined the evolution and inner growth that led him up to this time. He had traveled extensively throughout the entire country and his views on the makeup of the American culture had broadened deeply. I remember watching some of his speeches and noticing that there did seem to be something different about him, like a deeper level of empathy and compassion was emerging, especially for the underdog. And he seemed to have let his hair grow longer as well, maybe to emphasize his youth. Not that he needed it - he was only forty-two years old, afterall. Anyway, it didn’t take him long to make up his mind. And just four days after the outcome in New Hampshire, on March 16, 1968, in the same room where his brother had done it eight years earlier, Robert F. Kennedy announced his intention to run for president of the United States. Of course, his move was met with mixed reactions. Many people in the anti-war movement called him an opportunist, coming in only after McCarthy had courageously paved the way. But somehow, it seemed much bigger than that, like he was on a completely different level from the rest of the prospective field and was capable of producing the major change in the county that was so desperately needed. “It is a time of difficult choices, a time of danger and opportunity,” he said. “It is a time for all of us to choose whether we will stand for what we believe in, or whether we will be silent. “I believe that we can build a country where every man, woman, and child has the opportunity to live up to his or her full potential. I believe that we can build a country where every person is judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And I believe that we can build a country where the pursuit of happiness is not just a dream, but a reality. “But in order to do that, we must first have the courage to change,” he continued. “We must have the courage to stand up and speak out for what we believe in. We must have the courage to demand better from our leaders, and better from ourselves. “That is why I am here today. That is why I am running for President. Because I believe that we can do better. Because I believe that we must do better. And because I believe that together, we can build a country that is worthy of the ideals that we hold dear.” So that was it. Wherever you stood - like it or not, with him or against him, anti-war or pro-war, Bobby was in the race. The game was on. And suddenly everything had changed completely. This was an enormous development, as well as a major surprise to a large portion of the country. Suddenly, the idea of serious opposition to the war in Vietnam had reached an entirely new level, to the delight of the entire anti-war movement. Of course, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota wasn’t happy about it. He had personally approached Kennedy five months earlier, arguing for an anti-Johnson initiative and urging him to run, but Kennedy had squarely turned him down, saying he said he didn’t want to challenge Johnson at that point in time. A lot of other people in the anti-war movement were skeptical about Kennedy as well, feeling that he was an opportunist who only found the courage to run after McCarthy had bravely paved the way. But Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been standing firmly against the war for nearly a year, felt otherwise. He felt that RFK’s entrance into the field was a real help because it made the case against Johnson even stronger. As he stated, “I think both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. McCarthy represent the kind of competence, dedication and relevant thinking on the basic issues that confront us today, that they are the kind of men that present the alternative that I think we need.” But it really didn’t matter how you looked at it - the race for the presidency had suddenly and radically changed because Kennedy had now entered it. Besides his enormous name recognition, on a deep level he also represented the JFK Camelot mythology to a large portion of the general public, and his announcement had an immediate impact on the entire country. He quickly began active campaigning, targeting the key primaries that were the closest on the schedule. And when it came to managing a presidential campaign, he was a true expert, for he had overseen every aspect of his brother’s incredibly successful race. Over the next few weeks, things began to settle into the new political normal and then, toward the end of March, suddenly, President Johnson’s office requested airtime from the three TV networks. He wanted to make a major speech regarding the status of the war in Vietnam. His appearance was scheduled for Sunday night, March 31 and at 9:01pm, the president began to address the nation. He started by giving an extensive overview about the state of the war in Vietnam. He discussed troop levels and urged Hanoi to consider a recent US initiative for peace, after which he went on about the real chances for ending the war and praised the US determination to bring the situation to a successful conclusion. After going through these topics for over an hour, he began to discuss his actual role in the process, “I have concluded that I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year,” he stated. “With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour of a day of my time to any personal partisan cause or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office - the Presidency of your country.” Then at that point, with no warning, he suddenly shocked the world. “Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president,” he said. Then he quickly ended his speech. It was a major bombshell and absolutely nobody had seen it coming, not even the closest members of his cabinet or staff. He had kept his decision completely private, but suddenly, here it was - Johnson was out and the presidential race was now wide-open. Almost everyone believed that it was RFK’s entrance into the field that did the trick, but years later, it came out that Johnson’s health had been seriously deteriorating and he didn’t think he was physically up to the callosal demands that would be facing him. He had pretty much made up his mind several months before the McCarthy/Kennedy phenomenon had even begun to emerge. But none of the reasons why he did it mattered. All that mattered was that he was stepping down, it seemed like a whole new era had begun, and suddenly, things seemed incredibly bright. With Bobby Kennedy, Gene Macarthy and several other key players emerging into the forefront, a true change of direction for the war, as well as for the entire country seemed imminent. Although I don’t remember a whole lot from that particular time, I do remember that night very well. The next day, our entire campus seemed elevated. Who knows? Maybe the summer of love and the sudden emergence of flower power had something to do with it. But it really didn’t matter. All we knew was it was it seemed like we were in the Wizard of Oz; black and white had turned into color and we weren’t in Kansas anymore. April had begun, spring was about to dawn, and there was no telling what the future might bring. It was a great feeling. Suddenly, this elevated mood seemed to light up the world. And although major challenges were still plentiful, a new sense of optimism had begun to set in and it was truly a magical time. But unfortunately, it didn’t last long, for only four nights later, on Thursday evening, April 4th at 6:05 pm in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was brutally murdered. Now, details traveled much more slowly in those days. Don’t forget, this was still a dozen years before the idea of 24-hour news coverage had even begun. I do remember hearing that Dr. King had been shot, but the next morning, the enormity of what was happening really got driven home. At my first class, the professor announced that school was immediately closing and that basically, we should all get out of town as quickly as possible. The best thing to do now was to just go home. By that evening, I was on my way back to Philadelphia in a friend’s car and as I looked back at DC, I could see that the clouds in the dark sky were flickering red, lit by the color of burning flames. It was clear that some truly disturbing days lay ahead. So, let’s let this terrible news mark the end of this episode. We’re entering into a tough time now, but as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/31453562

Episode 105 - A New, But Familiar Light 06/04/2024

Episode 105 - A New, But Familiar Light As the last episode ended, we had begun to examine the speech that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had made as he publicly came out against the war in Vietnam. He talked about his lifelong commitment to non-violence, saying he had been compelled to speak against the war effort because the United States had become “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” He went on to link the war to the nation’s economic injustices, arguing for a fundamental moral shift in the country's priorities. He called the festering US involvement in Vietnam, “some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war.” And he declared that “America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic destructive suction tube.” Indeed, he found that the amount of money that had been spent in producing such meaningless destruction, was simply obscene. Total expenditures had surpassed $252 billion by end of 1967, while over 25 million Americans were still living below the poverty line. And don’t forget, our troops weren’t a bunch of volunteers fighting for a cause that they considered to be worthy. Far from it. This war was being fought by draftees. The country was under a mass conscription order, and if you were a male between the ages of 18 ½ and 26 and you didn’t have a deferment, you were either going to fight or you were going to jail. On top of all these other issues, the number of black soldiers fighting in the war was out of proportion. You had nearly 80,000 black soldiers being forced to fight a war that was 8,500 miles away, while their families were largely treated as second class citizens back home. But given all this, on a larger level Dr. King still had a sense that a major change of some kind was beginning to take place in the world and he stood squarely behind it. But it was going to take a lot of sincere effort and prayer. As he said, “Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance.” “Somehow this madness must cease,” he continued. “We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. “I speak…for the poor of America… I speak as a citizen of the world… as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. Then he concluded, “I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.” Today, this is considered to be one the greatest speeches of his lofty career. But things were quite different back then, and to say that his decision about the war wasn’t well received would be quite an understatement. But Dr. King was well aware of the probable opposition he would face as he went into the church that day. The idea of standing against the war had presented quite a difficult conundrum for him because it meant standing against President Johnson, who had been an enormous ally of the Civil Rights movement during the course of his entire presidency. He had been a powerful force of positive change in the lives of black people throughout the country, and the idea of opposing him on the war was rife with significant difficulties. And indeed, it proved to be so. A large portion of the Civil Rights movement was shocked that King chose to oppose Johnson and the NAACP called the speech a “serious tactical mistake.” But the opposition in the mainstream press was far stronger than that. The editorial board of the New York Times said that King’s position was an oversimplification and that when it came to the Civil Rights Movement and the War in Vietnam, "linking these hard, complex problems will lead not to solutions but to deeper confusion." The Washington Post said that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people." And Life magazine said his speech had been “demagogic slander that sounded like a script from Radio Hanoi.” But Dr. King stood strong and began stepping up his antiwar efforts. As I mentioned earlier, there were three powerful events that happened in 1967 that would have a significant impact on the American involvement in Vietnam. Dr. King taking a stand against the war in April was the first. The second happened on June 20, 1967, when the controversial, yet enormously respected world-famous boxer, Muhammed Ali, was sentenced to five years in prison for draft evasion. And just to be sure that everyone understood where the government of the United States stood on the issue of the war, on the same day that Ali was convicted, Congress voted 337-29 to extend the draft for four more years. Finally, on November 30 of that year. Eugene McCarthy, the astute senator from Minnesota, formally announced that he would oppose Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic party’s nomination for president. At the time, it seemed like a relatively minor event. McCarthy was basically unknown and even though Johnson’s popularity had begun to dip a bit at the time, it was common knowledge that he had a secure hold on the party and that there was no way he could be defeated for the nomination. McCarthy’s announcement seemed largely symbolic. Now, let’s go back to January of 1968. But before we get into what began to unfold politically, let me give you a very quick overview of what I was doing at school, once I returned from winter break. The reason this will be so quick is because I was doing very little at the time, unless pledging a big fraternity and partying your brains out can be categorized as an accomplishment of any kind. I wasn’t paying much attention to anything outside of the realm of my own little world and I barely paid attention there either. As far as the war was concerned, I rarely thought about it. I had a solid college deferment through to June of 1971 and the whole mess would certainly be over by then, so I had nothing to worry about. Other than that, I guess I had forgotten that I had come to college to learn anything, at least not scholastically. I was busy developing the attention span of a common house fly, along with the clarity and depth of a thin layer of mud. It’s not necessary for me to add any concrete details here. Just let your concept of absolute cluelessness fill in the blanks. So, back to the political world. Shortly after his announcement, to everyone’s surprise, even though it was still relatively small, Senator McCarthy’s campaign began to gain some traction. It seems there was a little more anti-war sentiment in the country than most people had noticed. At one point, it became generally known that, along with a few other groups, McCarthy had privately tried to convince New York senator Robert F. Kennedy to run against Johnson in the primary. But RFK was quite hesitant about it. Although he was unquestionably opposed to him, he felt that Johnson was in a totally secure position and that opposing him would be a bad choice for both the party and the country, as well as for his own possible future plans. It’s important at this point, to step back a little and take a look at RFK or “Bobby” as he was generally called, who was in a completely unique position in the country at the time. To start with, he was probably one of the first major figures in the United States to be routinely referred to by just his first name. Whenever TV or news reporters mentioned “Bobby” everybody knew exactly who they were talking about. And that’s because, as many of you know, he had become a major figure in America ever since his older brother, John F. Kennedy, had been elected president in 1960. As his tenaciously brilliant campaign manager, Bobby had overseen every aspect of the successful win. And then, as Attorney General, he became the most trusted member of the cabinet. Indeed, someone once asked JFK if Bobby was his number two man in Washington and he said that not only was his number two, he was also his number three, four, and five as well. Then, during the horrible ordeal of the JFK assassination, Bobby was center stage with the family throughout the entire nightmare. In the months that followed, he rarely made appearances and when he did, the scars of agony and grief were deeply etched upon his face. But nine months after the assassination, something truly remarkable happened at the Democratic party’s national convention in Atlantic City on August 27, 1964. It was the final day of the proceedings and they were going to show a film commemorating the life and accomplishments of JFK. The auditorium was packed and the program was being carried live on all the TV networks. Bobby was scheduled to give a very brief introduction to the film, and after a few preliminaries, he was finally introduced. As soon as he walked onto the stage, the entire auditorium spontaneously erupted into a massive standing ovation. For the first few minutes, it was overwhelmingly powerful, but it quickly turned into something much more, as the crowd simply would not stop cheering. Even though he tried to speak several times, they wouldn’t let him and the standing ovation just went on and on. It seemed that a huge wave of emotion had been spontaneously released and was being showered upon him, as though the whole country was holding him tightly in a fond embrace. It had not been organized, there was no demonstration of any kind and no accompanying music. It was just Bobby standing in front of several thousand people who were expressing their deep admiration and affection for him and what he stood for, including those golden days of Camelot that had been brutally stolen from the country. It went on like that for over twenty straight minutes and it was truly extraordinary. A few months later, RFK decided to return to public service and was elected the United States senator from the state of New York. From 1965 on, along with being a major figure in American politics, he became an effective and widely respected United States senator as well. Now, this is a perfect place to end this episode, as Senator Kennedy was about to make a political move that would have a major impact on the country. So, as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/31453477

Episode 104 - A Voice Is Raised 05/28/2024

Episode 104 - A Voice Is Raised We ended the last episode with a quick look at the groundbreaking Beatles album, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the powerful effect it had on popular music and on Western Culture in general. For many reasons, the album, which was released on May 26, 1967, seemed to elevate the mass consciousness of a significant segment of society to a new and higher level. And then a month later, on June 25, 1967, the old Fab Four took things up another notch. On the first internationally broadcast television program to be beamed simultaneously around the world by satellite, the Beatles introduced their classic masterpiece, “All You Need is Love,” which became an instant anthem for those amazing days. They had invited a bunch of guests to be on stage with them as they performed the song, including the Rolling Stones, the Who and many others. It turned out to be an incredible celebration and along with the music and the expanding tenor of the times, a new form of appearance had come into the world as well. It was the hippy look and it quickly became known as the uniform of the counter culture. It’s hard to describe because of its individualized, free and unencumbered, styleless style. But one popular phrase of the times sums it up - you just “let it all hang out.” And the Beatles, along with everyone else who joined them on the stage, all wore it well. Now, there was nothing subtle about what was going on. They were clearly making a statement and the entire Western world reacted. Shortly thereafter, the remarkable summer of love got under way, with its happenings, be-ins and other mass gatherings, boldly celebrating the emergence of this newly liberated way of being. The concept of Flower Power had been born and spread like wildfire, verifying the old adage that, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” Now, I haven’t mentioned anything about what I was doing personally back then, but it was a pretty incredible year for me as well. As a senior, I was elected president of our high school, (which was a relatively big deal for its time and place), I had also met and fallen in love with my high school sweetheart, Sally, and we had our own magnificent, teenaged summer of love. And to top it off, the basketball team that my father had founded only a few years earlier, the Philadelphia 76ers, won the NBA Championship. By the way, that high school romance of ours is still in full swing. We went on to get married, had a wonderful daughter, and as Sonny and Cher sang long ago, “the beat goes on.” However, for the purposes of this podcast narrative, what’s important here is that from my little perspective, everything seemed right with the world. Finally, the endless summer came to an end and I soon departed to Washington, DC and entered American University. One of the very first things that happened to me there presents an accurate picture of both the nature of the times and of my personal state of mind. I was living in a dorm and on one of the first nights, we had a meeting of the residents of our floor. There were about sixty of us and it went on for over an hour. Towards the end, the floor supervisor summed up the dorm rules and then added, “So when it comes to alcohol, as long as you’re not too drunk, you’re going to be okay. If you are too drunk though, you’re going have to go before the disciplinary committee. Okay, so I guess you’re asking – “What is the definition of being too drunk?” he asked with a smirk. “Well, if you get on the elevator and you’re too drunk to remember what floor you live on, or if you’re too drunk to remember what your room number is, or if you’re so drunk that you pass out in the hall before you even make it to your room - then you’re too drunk. If you’re less drunk than that, you’ll be fine.” Everyone had a good laugh, like hey, we didn’t know college was going to be this much fun. But then, his entire demeanor changed and, sounding like a tough cop on the beat, in a curt, strict tone, he said, “Of course, if you’re caught smoking marijuana, you’re immediately expelled. We have no tolerance for that here.” There was dead silence in the room and I thought to myself, “Who the hell is going to come to college and smoke marijuana?” It seemed like the most absurd idea in the world. “Why would anybody do that?” The mixture of college and marijuana seemed completely incongruous. As you might deduct, at eighteen and a half years old, to coin an old phrase, I was as straight as they came. I had never smoked anything at all and had never had an alcoholic drink of any kind in my entire life. And that was fine with me. I had other plans. I was enrolled in the School of Government and Public Administration and following graduation; I would go to law school and then join my brother in the law firm my father had founded. Anyway, it turned out to be a terrific opening semester for me. I went home for winter break to enjoy some sorely missed, extended time with Sally, and as the year came to an end, the only bad thing that I have to say about 1967 is that it turned into 1968. So, here we go. But this takes us into some rather dark territory and intestinal fortitude becomes an absolute must. By now, you probably know that the first place to start talking about this year is with the ever-deepening quagmire of Vietnam. Although I hadn’t been particularly aware of it, besides everything else that had happened in 1967, it was also the year that a small, but significant portion of the American public had begun to question our involvement in that war. Through it all, Lyndon Johnson kept reassuring the country that even though the financial and human costs had been high, our effort in Vietnam was proving to be more than justified and things continued to go quite well for us over there. However, his rosy picture darkened considerably when something called the Tet Offensive broke out at the end of January of 1968. Without warning, the North Vietnamese launched a massive, well-coordinated attack throughout the entire country, including the South’s capital city of Saigon. As the brutal fight continued to rage on, it became an enormous blow to US public opinion in two significant ways. First, it showed that the optimistic spin that had been put on the war was deeply flawed. And secondly, it prompted something revolutionary in TV news. Due to enhanced technology, all of the networks began to cover the war in graphic detail, and kept it in the lead position of their major broadcasts. This constant exposure brought the bloodshed home in a way that had never been seen before. Horrible images, filled with violent battle scenes brought the war into the living rooms of the American public on a nightly basis, which was deeply disturbing to the entire country. Suddenly, Lydon Johnson began to seem like a major liar and his approval ratings, which had always been robust, began to tank. At its peak, his approval rating had been 74% with only a 15% disapproval. By the end of February 1968, primarily due to his mishandling of Vietnam, his approval rating had sunk to a dismal 41% with a seriously significant disapproval of 48%. On a personal side note, I used to take the train to Philadelphia on a fairly regular basis to visit Sally, who was still in high school. I would travel to and from Union Station in Washington DC and I began noticing something eerie. On every trip. I would walk by a restricted area where there would be about 20 – 30 rather small, flag draped metal boxes with a military official standing nearby. Soon, I became aware that these were coffins carrying the bodies of US soldiers coming back from Vietnam, and the human toll of it all began to dawn on me. I soon realized that these weren’t just some metal boxes in the hallway of a train station. No. In a very short time, each one of them would become the sad focus of deep mourning, as the family and friends of the fallen would try to make sense of their dear young ones taken far before their time. All of this death! And what was it that what we were we fighting for again? At this point, to set the stage for what was about to come, it’s important to look back to 1967 once again, at three events that were to have an impact on the anti-war movement. The first one took place on April 4, 1967, when something truly extraordinary happened. After months of agonizing deliberations, and in a move that was incredibly controversial for the time, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. firmly and unequivocally announced his staunch opposition to the war. In order to understand the significance of this, let’s remember that there have been very few people in American history who can match his moral and ethical standing. Of course, he is mainly remembered for his groundbreaking actions in the realm of Civil Rights, but as lofty as those accomplishments were, they are only a small part of who he really was. For in essence, he had always considered himself to be primarily a preacher who had dedicated himself to doing God’s work. And as such, he stood for peace, equality, and dignity for all people, everywhere, not just for those aligned with the American point of view. In a major address before a packed house at the Riverside Church in New York City, Dr. King meticulously outlined his reasons for taking his anti-war stance. He then began to address the issue of non-violence. Throughout his life, King had been deeply influenced by the work of Mahatma Gandhi and had espoused the path of non-violence in everything he did, especially in the inner cities of America. And because of that, he now couldn’t justify the hypocrisy of not opposing this massive war effort. “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government,” he said. With those deeply striking and incredibly powerful words, let’s let this be the end of this episode. We’re just beginning this part of the story, so as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/31453402

Episode 103 - Turn Off Your Mind 05/21/2024

Episode 103 - Turn Off Your Mind In the last episode, I briefly described my grandfather, who was a lifelong mystic, and his reactions to the dream I’d had about my father and his ring, which was followed by its mysterious disappearance. I also mentioned another unusual incident concerning the ring that took place about twenty years later, when a friend told me about a vivid dream he’d had where my father had given him a message for me, saying that I should “remember the ring.” Now this wasn’t a childhood friend, he knew nothing about my father, and had no idea if this message was going to mean anything to me at all. As you can imagine, the fact that it had come through a completely objective third party and had happened a full twenty years after the original incident made quite an impact on me. So, that completes this part of the narrative. In summary, even though my life had been turned upside down by the sudden death of my father, which had been accompanied by two inexplicable events that had defied all logic, I put it all behind me, or so I thought. I continued with my eleventh-grade life, which basically meant that I returned to my everyday state of constant activity. Now, as I’ve mentioned a few times earlier, this podcast narrative focuses on the massive evolution of consciousness that began in the early1960s, as experienced through my own individual lens, which brings us now to the middle of 1966. On a larger level, at this time two huge influences were beginning to shake American society to its core – First, the enormous evolution of the Beatles and their profound impact on popular culture, and second, the war in Vietnam. With the Beatles, as we mentioned in the last episode, at the end of 1965, they had come out with their revolutionary album, Rubber Soul, which George Harrison said was the first music they made when they were all regularly smoking marijuana. It had enormous appeal and was having a major effect on all of popular music. By the way, their old friend Bob Dylan was breaking some new ground of his own. In March of 1966, he brought out a radical new song that caught everyone’s attention. Its free-wheeling, raucous sound was far more in the style of a New Orleans Dixieland band than of rock and roll. And in the wild chorus, with his background musicians singing along in high hysterics, he kept repeating the signature line, “Everybody must get stoned.” The song was over four and a half minutes long and got a ton of airplay on almost every pop radio station. So, on a daily basis, with a clever twist of words and a message that was unmistakable, millions of music fans would listen to Dylan constantly urge them to try marijuana. It was quite an advertisement. A few months later, the Beatles took it all one step further when they released their groundbreaking album, Revolver. Again, according to George Harrison, while Rubber Soul was the first album they made under the influence of marijuana, Revolver was the first one they made under the regular influence of LSD. The easiest way to describe this remarkable collection of songs is that it was incredibly trippy. One song, “Love to You” followed the form of a classic Indian raga, complete with sitar and tablas. Nothing like it had ever been heard in the west before. Another major breakthrough was the soul-stirring “Eleanor Rigby,” which brought an entirely new level of depth to the Beatles repertoire. All the other songs on the album became instant classics as well, but one track, “Tomorrow Never Knows,” deserves some special attention because it was specifically designed to boost the evolution of consciousness. Apparently, John Lennon had been influenced by a book called, The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Ralph Metzner. The book claimed that under the influence of LSD, it was possible to shed the limiting nature of constant ego identification and emerge into a higher, more enlightened level of awareness. And it gave step by step instructions on how to do it. Supposedly, after Lennon bought the book, he took LSD and followed the instructions to a tee. Soon after that, he wrote the song, with the psychedelic nature of the music combined with the mind-expanding lyrics. He said he wanted to sound like the Dalai Lama chanting on top of a mountain, as he enlightened the public to the message of possible God realization that underlies the LSD experience. “Turn off your mind relax and float downstream,” he sang. “It is not dying, it is not dying. Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void. It is shining, it is shining. That you may see the meaning of within. It is being, it is being. That love is all and love is everyone. It is knowing, it is knowing…” Some years later, George Harrison offered an interesting perspective on the song as well as on their evolving perspective at the time. “From birth to death all we ever do is think: we have one thought, we have another thought, another thought, another thought,” he said. “Even when you are asleep you are having dreams, so there is never a time from birth to death when the mind isn’t always active with thoughts. But you can turn off your mind. “The whole point is that…the self is coming from a state of pure awareness, from the state of being. All the rest that comes about in the outward manifestation of the physical world. . . is just clutter.” Then he concluded, “The true nature of each soul is pure consciousness. So, the song is really about transcending, and about the quality of the transcendent.” Of course, this understanding about the higher nature of our consciousness was extremely advanced for its time. And whether the public understood it or not, the message was still pouring out to millions of people on a daily basis, subtly or not so subtly affecting their consciousness. The innovative album caught on in a flash and the influence of psychedelic music began to grow significantly. Over the next few months, the Grateful Dead, the Byrds, the Jefferson Airplane, the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors all gained enormous popularity, along with many, many other groups. A new idea of a higher, more evolved state of being was clearly being born in the culture. And speaking of the culture, in a larger context, something called the “counter culture” was beginning to emerge, which not only challenged the mainstream norms and values, but also advocated for social change. Embracing ideals of peace, love, and unity, it was all vibrant, inspiring, alive, and unmistakably - young. But at the same time, another enormous, yet rather sinister influence was in the early stages of taking over the consciousness of the country as well. As you probably know, it was the ever-broadening tragedy of the war in Vietnam. Even though no one seemed to be paying much attention to it, like an undiagnosed cancer, it just kept metastasizing. President Lyndon Johnson continued to insist that the constant build-up of US troops was the right thing to do because at all costs, we had to prevent communism from taking over the Pacific Rim. And the costs were getting pretty serious. In 1964, we spent $53.4 billion on the effort in Vietnam. In 1965, we spent another $54.5 billion and in 1966, it escalated to 66.4 billion. That’s a total of $174.4 billion. Not that anyone looked at it this way, but in those three years, instead of being used for warfare, that amount of money could have abundantly fed well over a billion people. And the human costs were building as well. The US troops which had numbered 23,300 in 1964, grew to 184,300 in 1965, then onto 385,300 by the end of 1966. And with that, the truly horrible number - how many people actually died there – kept swelling. In 1964, 216 US soldiers died. It grew to 1,928 in 1965, then onto 6,350 in 1966. Now that’s just US troops. When it comes to how many of the North and South Vietnamese people died, no one really knows for sure, but an estimate of 10-1 is used as a conservative approximation. So here are the basically revolting numbers related to those three years of war - $174.43 billion just plain wasted on destruction, with a total of over 96,000 human beings needlessly killed. Even so, at that point, there still was very little opposition to the war and President Johnson stood resolute and strong. Afterall, he wasn’t about to let the Pacific Rim go communist. And on a side note, he was damned if he was going to be the first US President to ever lose a war. So that brings us to 1967, which would go down in history as a truly magical year. Many volumes have been written about it and there’s not a whole lot to say that hasn’t already been said. On the grim side, the US involvement in Vietnam got much worse, to nobody’s surprise. We went up another 100,000 troops to a deployment of a staggering 485,600 soldiers. And US deaths went up an additional five thousand to 11,363. That’s 17,713 families who buried their young sons and daughters who had died trying to protect the Pacific Rim from going communist. Not that any of us even knew what that concept meant. So. the dark side had gotten darker. But incredibly, the light side was about to get much lighter. On May 26, 1967, the Beatles released what was probably the most monumental album of their entire career, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band. This major phenomenon, turned the pop world completely upside down. The album was filled with references to transcendent states of consciousness that were being now being experienced by millions of baby boomers around the world. It featured the most psychedelic song anyone had ever heard yet, called “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” The music was absolutely hypnotic and the mind-altering lyrics broke radical new ground on many levels. The initials of the title happened to be LSD, but according to John Lennon, that was just a coincidence. However he always said it with a smile. George Harrison took his Indian raga theme one step further in his song, “Within You, Without You.” It was what is called a “Satsang Song” in the Indian tradition because it expresses some of the deeper truths of their ancient wisdom. “Try to realize that it’s all within yourself, no one else can make you change,” he sang. “When you see beyond yourself you may find that peace of mind is waiting there. And the time will come when you realize that we’re all one and life flows on within you and without you.” Meanwhile, on the very last song of the album, “A Day in the Life,” after a mind-blowing journey through some seemingly random news of the day, to mesmerizing music played by a 40-piece orchestra John hypnotically repeats the stanza, “I’d love to turn you on.” By then, several million people knew exactly what he was talking about. Now, I still wasn’t one of them yet, but that part of the story is coming up soon. Which makes this an ideal place to end this episode. As you might guess, things keep on evolving, so as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/31102628

Episode 102 - Yet Another Surprise 05/14/2024

Episode 102 - Yet Another Surprise As the last episode ended, I had given a quick overview of my grandfather, who was a lifelong Orthodox Jew, but was also a mystic with his own set of metaphysical understandings, especially about what was happening in modern times. Among his teachings, he used to tell us was that there are always highly evolved people living on Earth, who are here to help bring about the Divine Plan for the evolution of humanity. In the ancient tradition, such a person was called a Kal-El, which means “vessel of God.” As a brief note about that term - when I first started reading Superman comics at about age eight, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Superman’s real name on his home planet of Krypton was Kal-El. I never gave it much thought and figured it must have been some kind of coincidence until several years later, when I learned that Superman had been created by two Jewish guys, Jerry Seigle and Joe Shuster. I guess they thought of him as a vessel of God doing good, so naming him Kal-El was no coincidence. Also, when it comes to comic books, surprisingly, my first introduction to the idea that human beings could evolve into a higher level of consciousness came from reading about it in a comic book. I was around twelve and I still remember the moment when the concept first hit me. After years of being devoted to Superman and Batman, I had gotten introduced to a new company called Marvel Comics and its highly innovative, new characters began to expand the horizons of my imagination. It still featured action stories, but they dropped in some extra tidbits. Like in one episode of the Fantastic Four, there was an alien named “The Watcher,” from an advanced race of beings, who had become friends with Reed Richards, the leader of the Fantastic Four. One day, Richards wanders into The Watcher’s laboratory when he isn’t there and picks up a baton-like device. Suddenly he’s rooted to the ground, can’t move and his head begins to morph into a much larger size. The Watcher suddenly bursts in, grabs the baton out of Richards’s hands and brings him back to normal. Once Richards is fully restored, The Watcher explains that the device he was holding was a “consciousness enhancer.” In those few seconds, it had moved him forward a thousand years and he had actually become a highly evolved human being of the far distant future. As a fellow scientist, he asks Richards what the experience had been like. Richards says he couldn’t retain the details, but he could remember that he had become fully merged with the creative power of the cosmos and the inherent joy of being in that heightened state of awareness was indescribable. The only thing I can say about being exposed to that idea is that it completely blew my mind. It was several years before that expression became popular, but that cosmic comic book really did it to me. If it was possible for human consciousness to evolve to a significantly higher level, as an extrapolation, I began to wonder if it were possible for me to do it. And could I do it in this lifetime? A certain ideal seemed to take root deep inside my mind, almost like a trophy had been placed on some distant shelf in time to remind me to take up the quest to approach this noble goal at some later point in my life. Anyway, let’s get back to my grandfather and his belief that the modern technologies, including television, were being used by God to expand human awareness and that there are always Kal-El’s or vessels of God on earth, helping to further his work. Remember that Zayde, my grandfather, was the absolute spiritual head of our extended family and one day, to my sheer delight, he decided that the TV character, the Lone Ranger, was in reality, a Kal-El. This basically changed the workings of our family because now, whenever the Lone Ranger was on TV, my grandfather had to stop everything and sit and watch the entire episode. Whatever was happening around him, lunch or dinner, party or celebration – it didn’t matter. He had to stop and watch the show. Now, this was a terrific development for me because the Lone Ranger was my favorite TV program, and if it had something to do with God, it was all the better. Because in my book, watching the show was a million times better than sitting in Hebrew school for an hour and a half. Zayde would watch each episode with total focus, and after it ended, he would give a short teaching on the moral of the story. Here’s one shining example that is still enshrined in my memory. An hourlong origin special about how it all began was being shown, and we watched it together. As it started, the Texas Rangers were ambushed and left for dead by the bad guys. Tonto, the Ranger’s future Indian companion, comes upon the scene, realizes that one of the Rangers is still alive, and nurses him back to health. Since he’s the sole survivor, Tonto calls him the Lone Ranger. A few weeks later, they find a big white stallion lying near a bush bleeding to death, apparently gored by a bull. The Ranger and Tonto spend weeks caring for it. Once it fully recovers, they tie a rope around its neck and lead it into an open pasture. “Your horse was killed, and now Great Spirit has given you a new horse,” Tonto says, appreciating the synchronistic workings of the universe. “He’s not my horse yet, Tonto,” the Ranger replies. As they stand in the field, the horse feels its strength returning, and with its nose twitching, senses the call of the wild. The Ranger pats it on the head and slowly removes the rope. Then suddenly, he gives it a sharp slap on the rear. The horse bolts forward and breaks into a mighty gallop, charging full speed to the top of a hill. It rears back on its hind legs, neighing in triumph, standing tall against the sky. But when it comes back down on all four legs, a change comes over it. It tilts its head to one side, and then, as though sensing a call beyond the wild, it trots back over to the Lone Ranger and just stands there next to him. “There, there, Big Fella,” the Ranger murmurs to him, gently stroking its muzzle. Then he turns to Tonto, and in a clam voice, filled with absolute certainty says, “Now he’s my horse.” The show went to commercial and Zayde turned to me, his face glowing like he had been staring at a burning bush. “You see?” he asked me. “It’s all about free will. God will never force you. He’s just waiting for you to choose to be with him. You can do it whenever you want, but it’s really up to you. God’s in no rush. He has all the time in the world. And more.” Then, as always, he quoted some Hebrew or Yiddish phrase that I didn’t understand. “You know what that means?” he asked me. I never did. “It’s simple. ‘In the dark, you’re blind. But in the light, you can see. So, stand in the light and open your eyes.’” Then he touched the middle of my forehead with his index finger. “There’s a lightbulb in there. But it’s up to you to screw it in and turn it on. Understand, Davy?” So, that’s a brief introduction to this deeply esoteric man. Now let me tell you what happened when I told him about the incident with my dream and the disappearance of the ring. As you may recall from the last episode, I had experienced a vivid dream with my father. At the end of it, I gave him back his ring and it dissolved into white light. Then, the following morning, after my first period gym class, I was shocked to find that the ring had mysteriously disappeared out of my wallet, which I had securely locked in my locker. A few days later, during my regular weekly visit to him, I told my grandfather what had happened and he was completely transfixed. Every detail seemed to tell him something special. The fact that it took place in the lobby of the synagogue, the fact my father seemed younger and had a healthy-looking tan, the fact that he chuckled when I told him that he died and said that it wasn’t real, that it was just a trick…all these things amazed and delighted him. Then, when I got to the part where the ring had dissolved into a white light which filled the room and that I felt a happy presence in the light, he got quite still and didn’t move for a few moments. I didn’t quite know what to make of it, so I went right into telling him how the ring disappeared out of my locker the next morning. After I finished, he seemed deeply moved. “So, understand, Davy, that you were shown a lot here, especially at such a young age,” he said. “All that you need to grasp at this point is that this life is much more than it seems to be. Try to keep that idea in the back of your mind as you grow, because take it from me, it will always be true. Now matter how much you know, there will always more to learn. That’s just the way it works. As a path to infinity, it’s an infinite path, and it’s always more wonderful than you can ever understand, especially at your age. So, just keep opening up to it.” He broke into a warm smile and said, “It gives you a lot to think about and there are a lot of maybes here for you to consider. The ring turned into light in the dream, then it disappeared the next day in real life. Maybe that means there’s a deep connection between the two realms,” he said. “Much more than most people know.” “Also, Dad said there’s no death, that its just a trick God does to get people to think about him. So maybe you should give this whole thing a lot more thought. I’m sure that you will, over the years.” “And you said that you both stood there, holding the ring and it felt like a bridge between you,” he continued. “Maybe he’s telling you that the bridge is real, that it’s still there and that you’re still connected, even beyond death. Maybe you’ll always be.” “And you know what else? The ring turned into light and you felt yourself get pulled into it. What was that like?” he asked me. “It was incredible,” I said. “It had a presence that was filled with comfort and joy and I don’t think I’ve ever been that happy.” “Exactly,” he agreed. “Maybe, that light took you into Shamayim (heaven). And maybe he wants you to remember that feeling. Remember what that taste of heaven felt like. Don’t forget, the reason we came here in the first place is to find our way back home, so maybe you should enshrine that feeling in your heart. and maybe it can help you get there somehow.” “Now look, this whole thing is just like a lot of other things you run into in life. Maybe some of it was real. Maybe none of it was real. Or maybe all of it was real. Who knows? I do know one thing, though - you have the rest of your life to figure it out. And that probably won’t be long enough!” His eyes were twinkling, and he gave me one of his glowing, impish smiles. He did this kind of thing all the time. He’d use the word “maybe” in the tradition of the great Talmudic teachers he’d studied for years. They don’t tell you things. They just plant seeds and inspire you to help them grow. So, that’s the end of what he had to say about my seemingly metaphysical experience with the dream and the ring. But there is one other quick story I’d like to add, which took place about twenty years later. One Saturday night, I was at a big party and out of nowhere, an old friend who I hadn’t seen in quite some time came over to me. He said that he’d had a strange dream recently and he needed to tell me about it. In the dream, he was in a crowd of people and a platform rose up with a stranger standing on it. The stranger looked at my friend and said, “I am David Richman’s father and I want you to give him a message for me.” Then he lifted up his hand and my friend could see he was wearing a ring. Suddenly, the ring started glowing with light and the man said, “Tell David that I said to remember the ring.” Then he repeated himself. “Give David Richman this message. Tell him I said to remember the ring.” My friend finished and looked at me quizzically for a moment. “I don’t know if that means anything to you, but I just felt I had to tell you.” You can imagine what an intriguing shock that experience was for me! Well, there’s nothing more to add to this part of the story, so let’s let this be the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/31102378

Episode 101 - An Impossible Reality 05/07/2024

Episode 101 - An Impossible Reality In the last episode, I described a most unusual dream that I had. My father had been dead for almost six months and I dreamt that he appeared to me, looking alive and happy. He told me that his death wasn’t real, that it was just a trick. And he went on to explain that there really isn’t such a thing as death, it’s just a public relations stunt that God came up with to get people to think about him. Then he noticed that I was wearing his black star sapphire ring. He told me he didn’t want me to wear it anymore and, in the dream, I gave it back to him. At that point, a tremendous light appeared and everything dissolved into it. The light carried a wonderfully warm sense of happiness and joy in it and I woke up in an extremely elevated state of mind. Let’s pick up the story there. I began my day as usual. As I drove to school, I reflected on the dream from a psychological perspective. My second semester of psychology was almost over, and the mysterious workings of the mind were really starting to fascinate me. As I thought about it, I was quite impressed with this dream as it had been a perfect mental placebo for me. In the theater of my mind, my father looked great. Healthy and smiling, he said he had never really died, and that it was only a PR stunt. He called it a gimmick, which I loved. It was a term he used a lot in the early days of the team, but I had forgotten all about it. Yet it was exactly the way he used to talk. Indeed, everything about him was familiar, comforting and reassuring. In short, he was just the way I would have wanted him to be if he were alive. And there was also a strong God theme running through it, which made perfect sense because I was getting so much religious exposure every day. As the dream ended, I had seen this beautiful light, filled with an essence of peace, happiness, and contentment. I felt like I was finally coming back home and experienced an overwhelming love. Then I merged into it. It was all classic heaven stuff. I didn’t know what to make out of my father’s ring though. I had given it back to him and it had turned into light, which started the whole heaven part. It probably had some subconscious meaning and I figured that I’d bring it up with my psychology teacher. Anyway, as far as dreams go, it had been a real beauty. And if my mind’s purpose was to comfort me and bring me a little happiness and peace, it had certainly done its job. I felt great in the dream. And as a matter of fact, I was still feeling rather elevated from it as I drove along. When I got to the school parking lot, I took the ring off and looked at it. I liked it, but I always felt a little odd wearing it. I had just turned seventeen, and it was the type of thing you’d see on a fifty-year-old man. I didn’t care, though. It was his, and I was going to wear it for the rest of my life and give it to my kids. I put it back on and went into school. *** It was a Friday morning, and I had gym first period. When I got to my locker, I followed my usual routine. I wore two rings, a gold initial ring, and his black star sapphire. I took them both off and put them carefully inside my wallet, next to a ten-dollar bill I had brought because I was going to buy a new basketball after school. I took off my wristwatch, wrapped it around my wallet, and put the whole thing in one of my shoes. Then, I put my books on top of my shoes and locked my locker. I double-checked the door and the lock to make sure it was all secure. I had been doing the same routine twice a week for five years and I was confident that it was as tight as a drum. It was a beautiful May morning, and I played touch football with my friends, a bunch of jovial, eleventh-grade jocks. After gym ended, I took a shower and got dried off. Then, I opened my combination lock, swung open my locker door, and put my clothes on. I took the books off the top of my shoes, took out my wallet, removed my watch, and put it on my wrist. Then I opened my wallet to put on my rings, and the world stopped. To my extreme shock and disbelief, my father’s ring was gone! Everything else was exactly as I had left it. My gold initial ring and the ten-dollar bill were still there, undisturbed. But his black star sapphire ring, the one I had given him in the dream just a few hours earlier, was gone. It had disappeared without a trace. All I can say is that suddenly, reality didn’t make any sense. What had just happened, quite simply could not have happened. It just wasn’t possible. My head started spinning and I felt disoriented. I sat down on the bench in front of my locker and tried to pull myself together. To make sure I wasn’t losing my mind, I went over all the details again to see if I had made a mistake. But I hadn’t. I remembered everything precisely. “Somebody must have stolen it,” I thought for a second, but obviously, that wasn’t the case. The locker had clearly been undisturbed when I came back after my shower. The combination lock was still locked, and the door was untouched. And besides, why would someone steal just that one ring and leave the wallet, the watch, and the gold ring, not to mention the ten-dollar bill? I thought about the dream again. It was now nine in the morning and I had only been awake for a couple of hours, so everything was still completely fresh in my mind. I realized how strange the whole thing had been. I didn’t remember feeling drowsy at all or ever falling asleep and then, all of a sudden, I was back in the synagogue chapel. And there had been nothing dreamlike about it at all. Actually, I had never felt more awake in my life. And on top of that, unlike my usual dreams, it hadn’t faded one bit. Normally, I forget my dreams before I even start breakfast. But this time, I could remember every single detail, especially my father’s tan, smiling face. He said that he hadn’t really died and that it was a trick. Then he had me give him back his ring. When we held it, it turned into a brilliant light. And now, just a few hours later, in real life, it had vanished into thin air. What can I say? What had just happened just wasn’t possible. Still dazed, I sat in front of my locker for a few more minutes and then the bell rang. I knew I had to hustle because my next class was all the way on the other side of school. There was nothing left to do but get on with my day. My logic had hit a brick wall and as I got up and started walking, I still felt completely out of sorts. But as I hurried along, I noticed that everything felt just a little bit lighter, as if the old bounce was starting to come back into my step. *** A few days later, it was time for me to go visit my grandfather, my father’s father, and I couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say about the dream I’d had, followed by the seemingly otherworldly disappearance of the ring. We had always had quite a deep relationship, but it got much deeper after my father died. He and my grandmother lived about twenty minutes away and for one reason or another we would see them at least once a week. After I had my first strange dream experience, where I had the precognitive dream that my father had died and it all came true the next day, I told the experience to just a few family members and some very close friends. Along with all the sadness we all felt, many people also felt a little extra sympathy for me because I was the youngest, and most of the ones I told about the dream just shrugged it off, as something that either didn’t happen, or at least not the way I had remembered it. But not my grandfather. He believed every bit of it, completely. Now, before I tell you his reactions to the dream-ring-disappearance sequence, let me fill you in a little bit about him, as he was quite a unique individual. Although I haven’t mentioned him in the podcasts very frequently, he was one of the main influences on me in the younger part of my life, and is a central figure in “Wilt, Ike & Me,” the memoir that I’ve written about those early days. We all called him Zayde, which is the Yiddish term for grandfather. Although he was still the patriarch of our extended family, my father, who was his eldest son and a prominent attorney and businessman, had assumed most of the family’s worldly responsibilities. But still, Zayde remained the undisputed spiritual head of the family. That respected position never changed. And on the spiritual side, he certainly had the credentials for it. He had grown up in Lithuania as an orthodox Yeshiva student and as a gifted singer, he was being trained to become a cantor. In the Jewish tradition, the rabbi leads the service and gives the sermon, but the cantor is the one who actually sings the prayers. And ideally, he should sing them with so much understanding and feeling in his heart, that the prayers go straight up to heaven. Zayde could really do it, but he had to give up his lofty profession when his family fled to America. His young wife had gotten pregnant, and he had to make a living, so he became a wallpaper hanger. Eventually he opened a paint and paper store in South Philadelphia and he and his family lived in the small living quarters above the store. He still remained true to his orthodox religion though, carefully practicing all of its customs and traditions. But on top of that and somewhat secretly, he was essentially a mystic, with a deep understanding of the more arcane elements of the faith. You could see it whenever you looked at him. There was a twinkle in his pale-blue eyes and he always seemed to have a funny look on his face, like he was learning some kind of deep lesson and was ready to burst out either laughing or crying, or sometime, a funny kind of combination of both. Along with all his training, both traditional and esoteric, he had evolved some of his own theories about the cosmos, as well. He said God was always pulling humanity closer and closer to him, and the new communication technologies - radio, movies, and TV, were all a part of a great divine plan. Bear in mind that none of them had existed in his early life, not even electricity. He had seen them all develop and to him, they had been created to help teach humanity profound lessons, enabling it to achieve its highest potential. Now, this is actually a great place to end this episode. Of course, there’s a lot more to come, so, as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/31102113

Episode 100 - Just a PR Stunt 04/30/2024

Episode 100 - Just a PR Stunt As the last episode ended, I was beginning my return to normal life after the unexpected death of my father. The unanticipated event had turned my entire world upside down. After remaining home for a one-week mourning period, when I returned to normal life, everything was exactly the same as it had been when I left it. Same classes. Same teachers. Same friends. Everything was the same. Except nothing was the same and it would never be again. It’s a terrible feeling and everyone who has experienced the early stages of deep grief is painfully aware of it. However, there was one thing that was radically different in my new daily routine, which was that I was now going to synagogue every morning and every night and would be doing it for eleven months. The same held true for my brother, who was eight years older than me. It was a big eight years at that age because while I was in the middle of high school and living the life of a teenager, he was in his last year of law school, had been married for a few years, and his wife was about six weeks away from giving birth to their first child. But even so, we had always done everything together. We even lived in the same room in our house until he moved out for college. So naturally, we started attending the daily service together. Very early in the process, I came to understand that while the ritual of saying the mourner’s prayer is ostensibly to honor the dead, in reality, it provides a tremendous benefit for the living survivors. It was an enormous help to me on several key levels, and the most important one for me was that the rabbi of this particular synagogue was truly a spiritual giant. We got to spend an enormous amount of time with him and became extremely close. So, that new way of life began for me in the second week of December of 1965. Let’s jump ahead almost six months later to the end of May of 1966. As I’ve said, we have an enormous amount of resiliency at that age, and even with all the trauma around the death, I was still having a great year at school. My brother, Mike and I had been attending services every morning and night. We never missed a service and we intended to keep it that way, but suddenly something came up that was going to be an insurmountable problem for him. His last year of law school was coming to an end and soon, it would be time for him to take the bar exam. A two-day cram course was being offered that went until nine each evening and he was going to have to miss services for two nights. It was upsetting to him but there was no away around it and it absolutely had to happen. The first night came and I attended the service without him. It really was no big deal and I didn’t pay any attention to it. It was a normal night. I ate dinner with my mother, went to the synagogue and said the prayer, came home and did my homework and eventually got washed and went to bed. Then, one of the strangest things that has ever happened to me took place For some reason, I didn’t feel tired at all and thought I was going to have some trouble falling asleep. I was just lying there, and the next thing I knew, I suddenly found myself back in the chapel of the synagogue once again. It was a strange sensation because I felt like I had actually gone back in time. The events that had just happened a few hours earlier started happening again. It was like watching an instant replay, but instead of just watching it, I was living through it. Everything happened exactly as it had, just a few hours earlier. Services ended, and I walked out of the chapel. But this time, when I entered the main lobby, I heard a sharp sound. “Psst! Psst!” It was clear to me that whatever that replay had been was over. I knew I was in new territory because nothing like this had happened earlier. The sound came from my left. I looked over at the dark corner near the sanctuary doors and suddenly, my father stepped out of the shadows. Amazed, I walked right over to him. As I got closer, he gave me a warm smile and I was struck by how great he looked. He was wearing a gray suit with a purple shirt. The collar was opened, and he had a dark, healthy suntan like he had been in the Caribbean or Hawaii for a few months. He also seemed a little younger, with slightly more hair, which was slicked back. In short, he looked tremendous. “Where’s Michael?” he asked, as soon as I got close. “Oh, he couldn’t come tonight,” I said. “He has to study for the bar exam. They’re having a cram course, and tonight’s the first class.” “Oh, right, right. That’s good,” he said, sounding like he knew exactly what I was talking about. “He’ll pass it. He’ll do fine. He’s going to become a lawyer, and he’ll go right into the firm. Everything’s going to work out well for him.” Then he got a little serious. “But, watch out for your sister, though,” he said soberly. “She’s not doing so great.” “Sybil?” I wondered. “What’s the matter with Sybil?” I didn’t say anything, but as I thought about it, I remembered that she had never shown any emotion after he died. She had been extremely stoic, always stone-faced and never crying or even shedding a tear. Maybe that had something to do with whatever it was he was talking about. “Oh yeah,” I said. “She didn’t show any emotion after you d—” I was just about to say the word died, when the impossibility of what was happening hit me like a ton of bricks. Suddenly I remembered the actual truth of the matter – that he was, in fact, dead. I guess I had been so glad to see him, I hadn’t realized it at first. But now it all came rushing came back into me. The reason I hadn’t seen him for all this time wasn’t that he had been away on some tropical island. It was because he had dropped dead on the floor of the Boston Garden six months earlier. He was long since dead and buried. Yet here he was, standing in the synagogue lobby, happy and healthy and talking to me like everything was normal. “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” I exclaimed. “What are you doing here? You’re dead!” “No,” he said, with a slight chuckle. “No, no. That wasn’t real.” “What?” I asked. “It was just a trick,” he replied. “It wasn’t real.” “What do you mean, it wasn’t real?” I shot back, a little perturbed. “Of course, it was real!” How could he say it wasn’t real? It was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Everything about it was a nightmare. Our family was completely devastated, and since then, we had gone through month after month of relentless pain. I wished to God it wasn’t real, but unfortunately, it was as real as it gets. “You died. You’re dead,” I blurted out, even more upset. “It was terrible. There was this big funeral, and everyone was hysterical. It was awful.” An enormous rush of pain welled up inside of me. “It was horrible. You died! We buried you and you’re dead!” I was ready to break down in tears. But then, just like old times, he made his familiar gesture and held up his right hand, signaling me to calm down and listen to him. Just seeing him do it made me feel a little better. “It wasn’t real,” he said, calmly. “It was just a trick.” “What are you talking about?” I asked, bewildered. “A trick. You know a stunt, a gimmick.” I still had no idea what he meant, but I didn’t say anything. “Listen to me,” he said, sympathetically. “There is no death. It’s just a public-relations stunt God does to get people to think about him. That’s all it is. It’s not real.” I didn’t know what to say. There was absolutely, positively no question about the fact that he had died. It was irrefutable. And yet here he was—alive and well, telling me it was all just a stunt. As confident as ever, he certainly looked like he knew what he was talking about. He looked great. In fact, I’d never seen him look better. “See?” he said, with a smile. “It’s all just a trick.” Then he added, “Some trick!” At that point, my mind went blank. I don’t think I could think anymore, and frankly, I didn’t care. It was just such a relief to be with him again and listen to him explain something to me. It didn’t matter if I understood it or not. As I looked at him, I realized I had forgotten how much I really missed him. I hadn’t seen him for six months. It had been an eternity of constant pain and I had gotten used to it. But now, alive or dead, we were back together again, and the pain was gone. I was happy and felt like my old self again - two long-lost and long-forgotten feelings. He looked at me with a warm smile for a moment. “I see you’re wearing my ring,” he said, looking down at my right hand. He used to wear a black star sapphire pinky ring that he got when he went to the Japan Olympics to sign Luke Jackson to the 76ers. My mother gave it to me after he died, and I wore it every day. “Listen,” he said somewhat soberly. “The stone in that ring has a vibration that’s bad for your body. I don’t want you to wear it anymore.” I didn’t say anything. Then his face lit up. “Hey! I’ve got an idea,” he said. “Since I never really died, why don’t you give it back to me?” Without giving it a second thought, I took the ring off and held it up between the thumb and forefinger of my right hand. He reached up and held it exactly the same way. I thought he was going to take it, but he didn’t. Instead, we both stood there, holding the ring between us, like a statue. After a moment, I felt it start to vibrate. Then, like an instrument being tuned to a higher note, something within me quickened. The ring began to glow, getting brighter by degrees until eventually, the whole room was filled with a brilliant light. But it was more than just a light. I could sense a happy presence to it, a warm beauty that was extremely comforting. And it felt familiar to me as well, like I knew it from somewhere - another time and place from long before my memory began. I felt myself being slowly pulled into it, as though it had its own field of gravity. It got stronger, like the current of a river nearing the ocean, and the light got even brighter. The more light I saw, the lighter I felt, along with a deep sense of happiness and joy. And finally, an all-encompassing love enveloped me, and I lost all contact with space and time. I have no idea how long it lasted, but I finally began to regain awareness of my body. There was a gentle transition, almost like the physical world gelled into reality around me and I found that I was laying in my bed, wearing my pajamas. It took a little more time, but I soon realized it had all been just a dream. Soon, I was completely back in the real world. Obviously, my life was unchanged, and my father was still dead. Naturally, I was disappointed. As fulfilling as the experience had been, I quickly understood that the whole thing had been just a fantasy that my mind had created in my sleep. Even so, it had been a deeply wonderful experience to feel happy again. It was the first time since the night he died, that the heavy burden that I constantly felt was lifted from my heart. For those few moments, I had gotten to be my old self again and realized that I had completely forgotten the way life used to be, before the road had turned, and I had come upon the Vale of Tears. Now you may be thinking, “OK. So what’s the big deal? You had a happy dream that your father was still alive. Why is that one of the most amazing things that has ever happened to you?” All I can say is, we’ll get into that in the coming episode. For now, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/30829743

Episode 99 - Rubber Soul in the Aftermath 04/23/2024

Episode 99 - Rubber Soul in the Aftermath The last episode ended on the evening of December 3, 1965 when my father suffered a massive heart attack and died instantly during a nationally televised NBA game between the 76ers and the Boston Celtics. As I have mentioned previously, this podcast series examines the enormous evolution of consciousness that began to take place in the western world during the 1960s, as well as looking at what happened to me personally during those turbulent times, which led to my life-long commitment to the greater realization of human potential. It also seeks to present you with some fundamental ideas that you might find useful as you grow through your own inner evolutions, which is something we all do, whether we’re aware of it or not. That’s just the way our intelligence works. So, even though the events surrounding my father’s death were extremely traumatic, this is not an autobiographical look back at them. Rather, I am going to describe some of the realizations I experienced that began to open a pathway to my own inner growth. Looking back, I can see that without having the slightest awareness of it, I had been living my life with two basic assumptions that I had been taking for granted. As naïve as they may sound, these assumptions were simple - everything was going to stay the same and I would live forever. Of course, I knew intellectually, as we all do, that that these ideas are ridiculous. In reality, everything here ends and everybody dies. But as we all must learn sooner or later, there is a vast difference between believing a theoretical concept of something and experiencing the actual reality of it. And that’s especially true when it comes to death. For me, the aspect of sudden death was a powerful and rather rude teacher. It felt like having to learn how to swim because the luxury cruise ship you had been traveling on suddenly sank. The next thing you know, you’re in a freezing cold ocean and you notice a dark fin sticking out of the water that keeps circling around you. Of course, that’s just a metaphor, but that’s kind of what it felt like. But the death itself was also accompanied by an additional, mysterious factor. On top of the shock and grief, I had to ponder the series of cryptic omens that had preceded it that were particularly unnerving. As you may recall, along with several less intense events, I had experienced a jarring, recurring nightmare for three consecutive nights, followed by an incredibly vivid dream that my father had died. Then in the real world, the dream came true the following night, exactly the way I had dreamt it. In metaphysical terms, this is called a pre-cognitive dream, which is more of a prophecy than a premonition. So, under the surface, there was always this other element that I had to deal with, which was the uncanny experience that I had somehow foreseen the future. It had been incredibly strange and I had to ask myself – “How could that have happened? How could you have seen something in such detail the night before it happened? And, what does that say about time and the nature of life itself?” There was another deeply troubling aspect to the experience as well. In real life, when I began living through the events of the dream, I knew exactly what was coming next and I wanted to change the events. But to my severe shock, I found that I had no control over anything whatsoever. The incredibly odd fact was that I had absolutely no volition. Nothing that I thought, felt, or decided made any difference at all. I was awake. This was real. But it was like I was walking through a movie that had already been made. I knew that nothing could be changed because somehow, I knew that the present had already happened in the past. It was all too overwhelming to even try to understand. Some years later, I came come across a profound quote from Einstein that seemed related. “The distinction between past, present and future is nothing but a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Of course, I found the idea fascinating, but in trying to grasp it, all I could come up was that my understanding of my life in the world was incomplete, and that there was a lot more that I needed to learn, to say the least. It’s like you’re living your adult life learning your lessons and something unexpectedly alters your reality. Suddenly you feel like a preschooler enrolled in a babysitting club at an advanced university. Everything had changed so fundamentally for me that I felt like I didn’t know this world anymore. As boxer Mike Tyson once put it, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” And believe me, it was quite a heavy punch for this 16-year-old kid to take. At the foundation of it all, the basic impermanence that underlies all of life had become abundantly clear to me. My father had been an incredibly powerful person, the central figure not just in our family, but in the entire world around him as well. And in less than five seconds, he was gone for good. Vanished without a trace. So, it quickly drove home the fundamental impermanence of life. Nothing here lasts. Everything ends. Which brings up some deeper questions. Why does this creation even exist in the first place? What are we doing here? What is the real purpose of my life, if there even is one?” Suffice it to say that I eventually put all these thoughts and questions aside and got on with living the new version of life that had been presented to me. And it picked up pretty quickly. After all, I was in the middle of my junior year in high school and we are blessed with a tremendous amount of resiliency at that age. As soon as I began to return to my normal school life, a nice little coincidence happened for me. You may remember from a previous episode that my father had made me promise that I would say the Kaddish prayer for him after he died. I made that vow on a Saturday and eight days later, I said the prayer for the first time at his graveside. Amazingly, I had completely forgotten about that promise until those first words came out of my mouth that day in the cemetery. I started attending the synagogue near our house twice a day and I had to get into the routine of getting ready to go there every morning and night. A new Beatles album had just come out and I got into the habit of listening to it as I prepared to leave. Like all their other albums, its songs took up permanent residency in my mind almost immediately upon hearing them. The album was called “Rubber Soul” and it was quite a departure for the band. Many years later, once the Beatles had become history and were being studied from a cultural perspective, this album came to be viewed a major turning point in their career. Listening to it was giving me quite an emotional boost and one day, I heard a deejay say that the release date for Rubber Soul had been December 3, 1965, which was the exact day that my father died. Now, all my life, I’ve been one of those people who are always on the lookout for “signs.” It’s hard to explain exactly why, but if you happen to be one of them, you understand. Anyway, for me, this information meant that somehow, everything was in synch. As insanely disruptive as the death had been, on some level, it all made sense and in some way the universe was still in good working order. I might very well have been grasping at straws, but who cares? The fact that the dates were identical made me feel a little better. And no matter how small, I needed all the “feel better” I could get. Importantly, from the larger standpoint of the evolution of the times, the group had a distinctively new sound. Later this would be understood to be the very beginnings of psychedelic music, and the songs were mainly written and recorded while the band was under the steady influence of marijuana. If you listen to the song “Girl” you can hear someone inhaling a joint, and George Harrison once commented that the album was “the first one where we were fully-fledged potheads.” But the songs had a new level of depth to them as well. Remember that Bob Dylan had once told the Beatles that he liked their songs, but the trouble was that they weren’t about anything. John Lennon said that he took that comment in on a profound level, and when you listen to him sing “Nowhere Man,” it certainly sounds like it. “He’s a real nowhere man. Sitting in his nowhere land. Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.” Those words immediately got me. At the time, it sounded like he was talking about everyone, myself included. He continued, “Doesn’t have a point of view. Knows not where he’s going to. Isn’t he a bit like you and me. He’s as blind as he can be. Just sees what he wants to see…” In the present day, the song is looked at as an absolute classic and we take it for granted, but back then, it was truly incredible to hear these kind of ideas expressed in a Beatles song. In another cut, “Norwegian Wood,” George Harrison played the sitar for the first time ever in western music, which was truly a sign of things to come. And finally, there was the song, “The Word.” It’s a song about love, but it’s not a standard love song because it’s actually about universal love, which is a theme the Beatles would expound upon seriously over the next few years. “Say the word and you’ll be free. Say the word and be like me. Say the word I’m thinking of. Have you heard the word is love? Now that I know what I feel must be right. I’m here to show everybody the light. Give the word a chance to say that the word is just the way.” So, at the end of 1965, big changes were underway. The Beatles had evolved into a new level of musical genius and don’t forget, they were the leading force of cultural change in the entire word, so the larger world of popular music was changing in an enormous way as well. And as difficult as it had been for me, I had gone through the first truly major change in my life, and one of the key parts of it had been the fact that I had gone through an experience that had defied science and logic. But something even bigger was waiting for me just around the next corner. Let’s take that up in the coming episode, so as always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one. /episode/index/show/litebites1/id/30829563

Stop Making Yourself Miserable

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