Portals of Perception

Be honest: When we see a friend or colleague achieve a personal breakthrough — barrier overcome; milestone reached; the best of themselves coming forward — do we fully feel the value and joy of their success? Not even a tinge of jealousy, or wish that it had been us instead?What if we embrace a very different view of each other’s accomplishments and potential? When we acknowledge and appreciate the struggles and progress in someone else, we actually create space in ourselves for the same success. We grow in ourselves by watching others grow; we liberate a greater possibility that is only accessible when we come together as “we,” beyond the ego of “me.”What’s holding us back? Many of the outcomes of modern life: separation, fear, and trauma, which create an emotional and mental scar tissue that prevents us from trusting and accepting each other. Our natural human sensitivity is numbed, inhibiting the fountain of warmth, kindness, and generosity that is our birthright.Fortunately, we also have higher faculties and systems, still connected to our natural intelligence and creativity, that enable growth, development, and integration with an emerging new evolutionary potential.We explore the barriers preventing a greater human mutuality, and the seeds of our healing and integration, in part two of the conversation Evolving Together, with Aviv Shahar and two Portals' friends and life-long spiritual seekers, Nigel Geeves and Well. In part one, the three opened the question, Why evolve together?Among their insights:To evolve together we want to be fearless, which doesn’t mean having no fear. It means we're able to move forward and discover that the feeling of bravery on the inside is more powerful.In our human development journey, what seemed intractable and frozen by time and trauma can melt away in the presence of a mutuality that is prepared to support life rather than arrest it.The grip of what is holding us back is made stronger by fear. When we develop above fear in ourselves it no longer has credence or power and control over us.Everything humans do is powered by energy, which creates a form of collective memory. It’s like a loose operating system influencing human behavior, unless we develop above our history and co-create our future.The key is in our acceptance of another life and giving a space for the sharing of both of us. It’s acceptance of life to life, rather than the historic pattern of how I can win.When you no longer shun, suppress, or pull outside of yourself the parts you dislike in favor of the parts you like, it becomes a fuller integration of the inner family; you are more relaxed and more yourself.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “But the larger evolutionary strategy is that there is a better chance for survival, in most species in the flora life, in the fauna life, and for us humans, this was going to be more secure and guaranteed if we worked together.” (Aviv)“There's an imagery that comes to mind, and it's one of my fascinations. If you take a mirror, you can look in that mirror and get a reflection of yourself, but it's a singular reflection. We can look at another mirror and do the same, but if you put those mirrors next to each other and put your head in between them, you get a million reflections, and a human is a much better reflector of another human than any physical mirror.” (Nigel)“What it actually means is that we've been very successful in doubling down on sensitivity so that we don't feel or pick up on the vast majority of what is going on because it's too difficult to handle. So this is the beginning of a diagnostic process that really begins to open up those sensitivities again deliberately. So we begin to grow our awareness rather than retreating into a non-feeling state.” (Well)“Emotionally, as one grows and grows with others, and learns that it's possible to be safe with others, it is possible for the scar tissue in a life to begin to heal and melt. And the great benefit of that is that people become able to connect again, because trauma stops you connecting and causes isolation. And when people discover the great joy of being able to connect again, it's such a liberation that they tend to want to take that up and hold it as a valued thing.” (Well)“It just reminds me that shadows are always bigger than the thing itself. And, like you say, fear seems to be a shadow that when you actually face it, it's nowhere near as big as you thought it was. And the curious thing in that is that, how we think about something conditions how we feel about it. So it's vital that we review our views and psychologies, otherwise our feeling life just won't have a chance.” (Nigel) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEvolving Together #2 - What Holds Us Back?

Where can the human Big Bang be found? It is: You become what you apply yourself to. It’s not just a different angle on the familiar phrase of becoming what we think about; it goes much deeper.Application happens when we bring intention and purpose to focus our energy, knowledge and passion to achieve what we most value in life; to turn learning into action; to transform our physical, earthly reality and shape our universal future as it shapes us.Great. But how? Applying ourselves with intention to transform our lives means unifying the action of our head, heart and hands in a self-chosen direction. In other words, we need to know what we want. It’s the first step in creating an ecology where higher intelligence and connections can find us and help our development.In deciding how and where to begin, help is already available. This conversation marks the start of a new series in the Portals feature “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis are leading into “The Human Development Challenge,” which builds upon the many insights, knowledge and practices in the first ten Current Openings.The Challenge will take us deeper into the esoteric knowledge at the heart of our universal nature and possibility, such as with the conundrum of applying our learning in a way that supports our evolutionary journey.Among the insights:The harvesting principle says anything the universe learns or new capacity it develops can be downloaded to everyone: the universe runs an open-source operating system.The development challenge is inviting us to opt-in, to self-elect, to recognize that for us learning is exquisitely awesome. We define ourselves by what we learn.Einstein focused 95% of his attention on a problem to discover the solution. Here we’re not aiming for a single solution, but to create an ecology where multiple answers can find us.If we focus on learning alone without applying the knowledge, we never quite live the full potential and truth, which is what brings higher intelligence and connection.We can actually choose to learn, which is an amazing human specialty. Nothing else on Earth can decide to study something beyond its basic programming.The cycle of life is from potential to actualization; from intention to realization; from learning to application. What is learning? Without application, it's an incomplete journey.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “So the harvesting principle is this idea that anything that the universe learns, anything the universe develops as a know-how, becomes downloadable anywhere in the universe - because the universe runs an open-source operating system. In fact, it demonstrates that any capacity that got switched on is shared throughout the universe. It's a generous and compassionate universe. It means that for the universe, what's economic and effective is one and the same with what's generous and compassionate.” (Aviv)“The cycle of life is from potential to actualization, from intent to realization, from learning to application. What is learning without application? It's an incomplete journey. Learning is how life inseminates possibilities. It's the invitation for us humans to engage with this idea that we are alive here; we've been given the gift of life to enter the application theater.” (Aviv)“Well, I think that all human structures are based in their origination on the laws of the universe. So, as you said about the universe, it has definite laws, definite preset codes, and ways of being that we didn't make ourselves.” (David) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteCurrent Openings #11 - The Application Conundrum

We’re living in a time where increasingly we see what’s happening in the world around us and have to wonder how, or even if, we can find deep truth in the age of the “deep fake”. Artificial intelligence can distort or manipulate many forms of data and information we take in through our physical senses. Sights, sounds and “facts” on a page can all be faked. How then do we with confidence make sense and meaning in a life when even what we see with our own eyes may not be true?There are clues in the name itself: “artificial” intelligence. What about natural intelligence? We know from Portals conversations that the human is designed with the capability to connect with larger, universal sources of intelligence, creativity and inspiration, beyond the reach of even the most powerful AI.It’s a deep truth explored throughout history by spiritual teachers, shamans and wise men and women attuned to the finer, energetic, subtle realms as a living reality. Sources of profound revelation and learning that can transform lives and communities, and reconnect the human to its natural birthright.In this conversation we are once again fortunate to have as our guide Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast. He joins Aviv Shahar for part two of their conversation, begun with Protecting the Sacred.Among their ponders:AI is going to touch everyone and every type of reality, with inevitable distressing effects, including a reduction of cognitive capacities, and an increasing distrust in all information sources.How do we bring the spiritual and sociological closer together? Integrate a life of deep spiritual practice, freed from dogmatic interpretations, with an emerging cultural and community experience?How do we balance the notion of God with our current notion of reality? Or of creating healthier existing religious structures versus cultivating new emergent religion-like experiences?A big-picture model of deep history shouldn’t accept mainstream neo-liberal media or academic consensus as reality, but be open to surprises and anomalies that could reverse consensus going forward.We don't want to be naive utopians, but also not nihilistic, pessimistic, or to give up. Let's invest our imagination, heart, and actions in trying to figure out what a better world actually looks like.Just because someone can enter or produce a state — an unusual chemical, energetic, or psychological condition — doesn't mean they have an established stage of development.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I think up to that point, what I'm mostly thinking about is something vaguely like enlightenment. Right? So that I'm undertaking experiences very deliberately, because I want to transform my consciousness.” (Layman) “One of the most prominent ways that people have sort of subtle experiences in the modern world is with entities that they feel are extraterrestrial, right? And the work of Jacques Vallee in the 1970s did a lot of under laboring to support the idea that in a previous time period, you might have interpreted these as elves or angels or something like that.” (Layman)“A lot of these communities are centered around meta models, by which we mean attempts to do transdisciplinary philosophical integrations that take many different models and many different disciplines and many different types of perspective taking into account coherently.” (Layman)“There's a phrase I used in that series which was 'to naturalize the sacred and to sacralize the natural'. And I think this goes along with trying to bring the rational and the intuitive together. So you want to say, we embrace a natural science universe, not a reductive natural science universe, but an expanded natural science universe, and at the same time, it's only relevant to us if it can produce the cultural meaning and the individual transformation that's necessary for a human life.” (Layman)“Is it better for you to treat something like a person or not? You can't objectively have perfect knowledge of whether you're dealing with something that's sentient or not. But is it actually better for you to respect everything you're dealing with as if it was another sentient being? And that makes a lot of spiritual and emotional sense. Or is that the gateway to a path of delusion where we lose important distinctions, and we end up over attributing capacity and depth to things that don't have them and lead our society further down a pathway of simulation and meaninglessness?” (Layman) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteA Conversation with Layman Pascal Part 2 - Pursuing Integral Wisdom

At a time when cultural and existential crises threaten the wellbeing of our global community, shouldn’t the search for wisdom and a more enlightened path forward embrace all sources of insight and new intelligence? Twenty-first century technology, side by side with ancient and sacred traditions? The intuitive, and the scientific?There is growing awareness that real transformation, personal and collective, needs a fuller integration of many approaches, including the ancient shamanic, and more mystical or contemplative spiritual practices and personal development. Right alongside the speed and computational power of artificial intelligence.So how do we get even deeper tethered in the natural human capacities that help create the space and receive the impulses of new evolutionary energy feeling its way into humanity, and integrate newly emerging technologies and sources of knowledge? How do we facilitate this integration in a meta-modern global landscape that is constantly evolving? In this special Portals conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast. Among their considerations:There is an enormous appetite among people to create rituals, to create beauty, to come together in the kinds of events that tell our subconscious we're part of a community that's worth fighting for, worth working together for.There's no way to change the world without including people we don't like. There needs to be an anti-fragile attitude of how to make use of the people we feel are problematic, not just the people we think are pure.The risks of a YouTube channel and podcast are that we begin to believe that talking heads and words are a sufficient pathway to an enlightened future. What about embodiment work, community, purpose and friendship?If you can fall in love with the unique spirit of special people — thinkers, writers, saints — that you feel have depth and brilliance, then you can see the same in versions of yourself.Other sources of intelligence, such as the subconscious, collective consciousness and AI, are where we're likely to see breakthroughs that our conscious minds are not going to figure out.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I think more fundamentally, it's the exploration of and refinement of our capacity to consecrate things. And different groups of people in different styles might do that consecration in different ways. For some people, it's the evolutionary process. For some people, it's a magical hill, or an image or historical events. And we need to be thinking very broadly about how different people perform this in different cultural contexts and through different languages.” (Layman) “Culturally, I'm looking at an overlapping series of communities or networks where they aren't all exemplary cases, but where you get a higher concentration of people who exhibit these competencies. And I would throw into that competencies list humor, and also the willingness to go into what seemed like negative aspects, right, the ability to explore our shadow.” (Layman)“I'm a little bit biased by my own temperaments. But it seems to me there are a lot of people asking how do we break out of the personal and collective discussion circles and play in a wider skill set? Right, the people who are in high level metacognitive construct aware integrally informed mindsets have a tendency to feel like they've included different forms of intelligence, but not practice those different forms of intelligence.” (Layman)“I think we constantly are at risk of having the most dynamic aspects of cultural and individual transformation subtly replaced and sabotaged by things that sound good and look good, that the superficial mechanisms of our culture, our media, our economy, the gossipy part of our own minds, our allegiances, our symbolism, all this sort of social architecture has the tendency to enter and replace the sacred.” (Layman)“I think there's a problem in getting different aspects of these networks linked up to each other. The people who are interested in ecology don't necessarily know what the crypto people are doing, who don't necessarily know what the psycho spiritual people are doing. They all in general recognize the same problem and want to work on it, but they don't understand each other's areas well enough to take action on them and generate projects on that basis. And so leaders need to be able to see and cause people to challenge the limiting boundaries that have traditionally surrounded change communities.” (Layman) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteA Conversation with Layman Pascal Part 1 - Protecting the Sacred

Many news platforms today still at times refer to the struggles of life in 2023 as residual pandemic trauma — directly influenced by the painful events beginning in 2020. Is it really fair and accurate to connect today’s behavior and attitudes to a three-year-old ‘trauma’?There’s no doubt the pandemic caused pain and suffering, and trauma, for millions of people directly affected. But as everyday life finds a post-pandemic new normal, is it helpful to our personal and collective healing and rebalance to see ourselves as traumatized? Or has trauma become a convenient rationale and strategy to avoid fully facing unsettling aspects of our changing reality?The pandemic is one example of how trauma can become what some people describe as a culture and identity — a myth we hold onto to explain and excuse our behavior, where every struggle is attributed to trauma. We explore the nature and outcomes of this all-encompassing focus on trauma in this Portals conversation between Aviv Shahar and Alexander Beiner, author, podcaster, and co-founder of Rebel Wisdom, a highly regarded platform for new ideas in this time of change.Alexander traces his journey to Rebel Wisdom and reflects on the extraordinary phenomenon of its rapid growth as a global community. The conversation then takes a deeper look at the trauma myth.Among their insights:The distinction between a healthy, constructive self-introspection, and one that is narcissistic and destructive, is important because they sound similar but have very different outcomes.There's something healthy about starting with a baseline that life involves suffering, rather than a modern Western consumerist notion of life as the pursuit of happiness.Cognitive flexibility builds on the understanding of brain plasticity; you can create new synaptic connections and circuitries through learning — exposing yourself to new experiences.We reframe resilience from bouncing back to bouncing forward; not reestablishing the old balance.If the story we tell ourselves is that we're inherently fragile, the culture we create prevents the innovation and risk taking needed to come through the mental crisis we're facing.It's a time of great overlapping crises; in Greek crisis means decision point — we must make huge decisions about who we are and the kind of society we want to create.The universe now needs more of the human coming online, not in buildings and churches made of stone, but on the inside, which means turning on the interior lights.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “As well as for me personally, a lot of the countercultural, psychedelic, countercultural visionary kind of thinking that I was used to, which really gave a message that we can change systems, it is possible. And it's a question of overcoming what was known as the prosaic fallacy, which is this idea that we simply can't imagine a different way of doing things, that doesn't mean that a different way of doing things isn't possible. So that was a big influence as well.” (Alexander) “So it was actually quite a long process I went on and the instigating factor of me wanting to write something about it, or actually originally make a film about it, was a piece I read by Parul Sehgal, who's a literary critic, it was in the New Yorker. And her piece is called ‘The Case Against the Trauma Plot’. And I thought, uh, huh, interesting. What she's arguing is effectively that a lot of writers of modern stories are using trauma to explain their characters.” (Alexander)“So I gathered a circle of friends, psychologists, practitioners, and we spent two years working on the project of resilience and the five key ideas we qualified. And then it became a tool that I've been using for the last 15 years now, with all the teams I've worked with.” (Alexander) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s Website

Portals Into the Soul invites us to realize the soul wants us to be fulfilled — to live a life as closely aligned as possible to the greater connections, intelligence and qualities that are the human’s universal birthright.Through a contemplative inquiry process, we can open a living conversation with the soul and its many facets and capabilities. It’s letting the unconscious lead the way as we build a bridge to a bridge (the soul itself.)Other dimensions of engaging with the soul are explored in The Ghost and the Inner Conclave.Aviv Shahar and several members of the Portals team get together in this conversation to offer their reflections and experience of the Portals Into the Soul Preamble and the first chapter, which will be published here next month. Among their appreciations:Discovering the soul’s nature and mission involves trust — in our instincts and self-leadership, and in the knowledge the soul is part of the fuller truth of being human.Portals Into the Soul is an inquiry quest, not the shortest path or something like packaged convenience food. We’re unlocking a connective human capacity.It is courting the intelligence of the soul; creating a conductive ecology where the soul can transfer new knowledge and revelation.What happens when trauma or other real-life experiences cause our attunement with the soul to feel marginalized, reduced or compressed? How does the soul react?Science can’t accept the idea of emergence; it wants to define and name things, down to the molecule. “Emergence” means we don’t know what’s really going on, which is of course the case.If you’d like to participate more actively with like-minded people to decode and metabolize this new revelatory work as it emerges, we can facilitate soul-inquiry pods and discussions coming together. Let us know here if you are interested to join a pod and we will connect you with others TWEETABLE QUOTES “I think that for a lot of people, especially in the West, if you were raised in any kind of a religion, I had a very religious upbringing. You always heard about the soul. But it was this sort of mysterious point of theology, we have this immortal soul, it was never more than that never went beyond that other than it's something that is there.” (Patrick) “You're just knowingly or unknowingly plugging into the very thing I'm working on right now. And I don't want to talk about it too much because it's still in a forming phase. But I will say that there is a whole conversation we ought to come back to in the future to do around emergence. It's a word that traditional scientists hate.” (Aviv)“I want to say how exciting this prospect is, and how important it is to emphasize on the value of shedding light into these territories of the soul, without having to go to Tibet or to India and meet a yogi or do 30 years of psychoanalysis to solve an issue. And I think the element of all of us co-creating this content and discovering it in a playful way and with a lot of practices that are accessible.” (Kyriaki )“I always wondered, what is the soul? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Do we live inside it, or does it live inside us? And, if it has a voice, how to listen to this voice and how to connect with this voice? If we are disconnected from our soul, how does that impact our well being, our health, our fulfillment? So I think all these questions about the soul are very important questions.” (Kyriaki)“If we think of ourselves as spiritual beings first, rather than planetary beings, the idea that the soul is this kind of local guide for us. And in so many of the Portals conversations about human development, human possibility, we see that the natural laws and the physical systems are all supporting us. They have a mission, whether we understand what that mission is or not, in helping us fulfill our lives. So I think the soul is a critical piece of that.” (Peter) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsitePortals Into the Soul – PreambleIntroducing Portals Into the Soul

Is there a unique human or universal possibility in “we” that simply is not available to even the most finely developed “me”? When two human beings meet in purpose — really meet, not just be in close proximity — can they unlock in each other a greater growth and evolutionary potential than either one can even perceive on their own?We can see in world history the obvious survival and evolutionary benefit to living collectively in families, tribes, communities and cities; safety at many levels in numbers. We also see where survival and "safety" can fuel fierce competition and rivalry over resources, ideology and culture. Will fear always override every higher human impulse that would naturally bring people together?Fortunately, no. We can find stories all across the planet of miraculous healing and transformation that take place when people cultivate with each other an ecology that’s open and trusting, creating a new sense of what is possible as we evolve mutually and collectively. What else could be holding us back?In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by two Portals friends and life-long spiritual seekers, Nigel Geeves and Well. Through their own journeys they explore and reveal what becomes possible when humans seek to evolve together.Among their insights:Have consideration, have compassion, have patience, and take into account what another life is feeling and what is going through them is an enormous evolutionary leap.Humans have a capacity to transcend the animalistic reactive nature that is part of our DNA and our historic formation, and we access it through our choice.We’re discovering a new we; a communal ritual space where a conductive healing presence can unlock and release so much of the trauma built by earlier conditioning.It begins with a willingness to not possess life, not possess each other, not possess ourselves; to be more open to life as a flow, and flow through your experiences and meet others on the way.We're each born into a family by bloodline, and we also can choose to create a new family; it’s possible for us humans to find that special love early in life or later in life.There is in our instincts the ancestral DNA that wants to activate some personal protective measure because we've learned to be so afraid of each other.Postmodernity said let’s break away from everything the traditional patriarchal structure created and liberate the individual. It was a necessary phase to reclaiming the interior dimension of life.The people I spend time with on the outside come to live inside me in a way, as well; I carry those companions and it increases my stability, like guide ropes on a tent.When you meet another person there is a way the meeting reveals a part of you that you didn't know was there. Openness, intimacy or trust can be developed so we truly carry the potential of each other.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I realized psychology is really important and, in the West, we've got this psychology that we are individual and when we come together it's like putting blocks together. But when I traveled to Africa, I came across this word Ubuntu which means something I don't think we've got a literal translation but it's something like “I am because we are,” and in the deep feeling of myself, it feels like that, we do have a deep connection that all comes from the same source. But we are separate among all beings.” (Nigel) “One thing that's come up is how I think about meeting others because, firstly, we meet on the outside, and there's validity in that in the way that our senses look outward. So often, another person will see more about me than I see about myself. So in reflection, there is great assistance possible. But one thing I'm currently discovering and have discovered over the last few years is that those that I spend time with and meeting on the outside, they come to live in me as well.” (Nigel)“If you look at the two words, react, which clearly says doing something again that's been done before and is mostly an automatic process, and response, which is very different and tends to have some element of consideration inside it. Now if you look at the defense systems by their very nature, they are designed to preempt attacks, and they need to work fast and actually block attacks, preferably before they happen. So they're both very much in reaction. As we've already identified, there is so much in us that is set up that way. But mostly, we go on an automatic process of defending even when we don’t need to, rather than actually considering, responding, and going deeper. (Well)“I had a very potent experience early in my journey where I kind of met a signal that switched me on to the whole idea of being a part of evolution and playing a part in evolution consciously, and so that turned on in me, and I was very grateful for that. I've been looking around the world and thinking, ‘Where do I fit in this place?’ And I hadn't really found where I fit in. But I felt I fit in by playing a part in that bigger process. So that was important at the beginning of a journey I've been making ever since.” (Well) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteThe Evolving Together Series

We haven’t followed Albert Einstein’s ratio exactly here on Portals, but there is great wisdom in his insight that if given an hour to solve a problem, he’d spend 55 minutes focusing on the problem, and five minutes thinking about solutions. It’s one of the perceptions helping us uncover practical solutions to the puzzle and pain of the human predicament.In the latest addition of the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, we distill the new intelligence, power and potential discovered as we face the challenges of living a purposeful life in a time of chaos and crises. Earlier Current Openings applied Einstein’s advice and clearly defined the dilemmas: the addiction trap; the knowledge and emotion problems; the brain/body conundrum.In this conversation, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis review the profound insights that are opening pathways to the true nature and potential of the human mind and emotions. We also see the healing available when we live a life in natural balance and harmony with the planet and universe.What we’ve discovered along the way includes:Esoteric knowledge isn’t a secret to keep hidden, but potential to be activated, brought online vs. online. The key is the initiatory process that activates the energetic and spiritual domains.In challenging times, the best-case scenario is to engage with multiple paths concurrently; find the tethering moment of surrender and uplift through different paths at different times.The communal journey has its lights and shadows, agonies and ecstasies; it’s where we can find a distributed collective intelligence and discovery.Another path is a mission-based endeavor and practical application with a purpose that will lead our development, rather than us trying to develop ourselves.Key to the addiction trap is understanding synaptic or circuitry locking — repetitive thoughts creating strong synaptic connections that form grooves in our brain we keep repeating.We understand the universe as a living system that wants to both preserve itself and conserve energy, and evolve to become more capable, connected, and intelligent.We engage with the leading edge of consciousness through the lens of choosing which program and habits will we power; we avoid the erroneous choices that can hijack our system.This conversation builds upon concepts and insights explored throughout the Current Openings series. It is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “So I think starting with the predicament — if we don't realize there is a predicament — we don't get to the starting gate. So if we're in our lives and we just think, ‘ Well, this is the way that life is, and I need to be in harmony with the world culture the way it goes on, ’ that's as far as it goes. Then we're staying with the exoteric, which is staying within the fact that I've got my established religion that I was born into.” (David)“So if we spend our life, our brain life, playing Mutant Ninja Three or some other video game dynamic that is very separated from the universe, the idea of the meta-universe, the human-made universe -- and then that would be bringing in something that is alien to our systems or actually setting us up for contradiction and various kinds of anxiety -- more medications get sold to handle that -- and we're dealing with a disconnect between our brain and our body in that sense. So probably most of the so-called chronic diseases are a great part of what causes the disconnect between these two parts, I think.” (David)“Collecting our experiences is like gathering potatoes. So we gather and gather and gather potatoes in our life. But then, if we're going to actually then create something out of those potatoes we need to have the ability to distill from the potatoes the spirit of what's at the essence - when we can take them and bring them through a refining process. Because according to our development, it's not just our experience that creates who we are, it's what we make of that experience. And I think that's fundamental to what we're getting to in The Human Predicament.” (David)“So to me, the energy, the connection, is made when we get the right kinds of understanding and have a pursuit of purpose. We can make an energy connection that actually causes that kind of coolness and trilling, and we feel it in our whole system. That is going to be sort of a big part of the human proposition: how we can raise the level of vibration not only mentally but in every other aspect.” (David) “What we essentially said was that, number one, the universe is a living system. And this living system, when we say it's alive it means it is a place full of energy, and it has two drivers. One, the first, it wants to preserve itself, to preserve and conserve energy, and then it wants to allocate the preserved and conserved energy to evolve and become more sophisticated, more capable, more connected, more intelligent.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEnergy Worlds

What if we paraphrase a popular saying about the devil* and think “The greatest trick the modern world ever pulled was getting humanity to believe there aren’t any options”?As cultural and ecological crises deepen around the world, there are visionaries taking steps to demonstrate that, yes, we have options in how we choose to live and the future we imagine for ourselves and the planet.This emerging and powerful sense of new possibility is transforming, among many other endeavors, how we think about and create a sense of community — the ways we work, live and engage with one another and our environment. Intentional neighborhoods, “metamodern monasteries”, and virtually connected global networks are all part of an expanding vision for a collective human experience.Of course, no one is saying it’s going to be an easy transformation. For example, a cultural undercurrent we all share in our collective imagination is for a superhero to come and save the day; always an individual, never a group of people talking through their differences We talk through many visions and ideas for a new approach to community in the second part of our conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French-Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation. Part 1 explored the emerging, new second Renaissance.From their conversation:We're serving the discovery of our individual purpose and calling, and at the same time, becoming a serv ice agency of evolution itself. Can we wrap our mind and heart around not living just for ourselves? A practice hub is having a space for the modern individual to rediscover in sometimes awkward reengineering how to be together again, at a pace that doesn’ t create trauma about the collective. What mix of ingredients — business plus location plus practices — will be scalable to create a transformative region in the next few decades, a place in the world where the future is being pioneered? I see a lot of mov ement coming from fear and panic. Being in service today is to not give in to fear, but slow down and discern what’s going on inside and outside. Let the work, work on you.Something bigger than us wants to reconnect with humanity while we seek to reconnec t with it. We’re birthing new sense organs and ways of being — connecting with the ineffable that is rediscovering its beloved humanity through our endeavor. People are skeptical; there's a sense that things won’t work out. One of the killers of this age i s cynicism; it’s an extinguisher of hope.“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Attributed to Charles Baudelaire, and quoted in the film “The Usual Suspects”This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “So some of the practice hubs is that, is like having a space for the modern animal to rediscover, in this awkward reengineering, how to be together again - and do it at a pace that we can process it, that we can integrate it - versus just having a rupture, and another breakdown, and another trauma about the collective.” (Sylvie) “If you go and study their life, in my view, about a month or six months later some people there is something that shifts, but it's a very small minority. We do a month workshop and we have conflict, they have fights with other people in the community. And we're like, that's the best thing. They may not like that as much, but that's when the growth happened. If you can go through conflict, if you can transform that, if you can start seeing your own shadow. And believe me, Sylvie and I have seen a lot of it shatter living community, all the things that you haven't dealt with in yourself, or the ways that you're this way or that way, or reactive or, you know, dominating or whatever else there is about you. I mean, you keep being shown that.” (Rufus)“In my personal journey, a whole part of growing up was to deal with the sense of disappointment because I thought that life was supposed to happen a certain way - from the media and the narrative I was given. And I think in reclaiming a different narrative, which is saying there is difficulty, and there is light and liberation and solace when you embrace the difficulty on the other side. Life is not about trying to not have problems or not have difficulties, but most of the depiction of what people tell you is all they're trying to do is get rid of problems.” (Sylvie) “People are coming, what we're interested particularly in was what we call sustained ontological development, fancy term, but what I mean is the other thing we're interested in is what is the growth people need to go through and want to go through and how does it sustain? One of the things that intrigued us was, I've gone on a retreat, you know, you come back after a week, it's like, Oh my God, I've seen it, I need to change my life. And then three weeks later, you're back doing zero meditation, whatever. How do people sustain it? (Rufus) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteLife Itself

What would it take for us to see the ecological and cultural crises sweeping the planet as possible harbingers of a higher transformation and metamorphosis, a second global Renaissance? Big economic and political change can be traumatic, for individuals and communities. What if the global upheavals shaking our modern way of life actually are part of a natural cycle in evolution, a necessary correction in aiding the appearance of updated human potential?Considering the possibility of a new global Renaissance could also mean revisiting and questioning some of the pillars of modernity that have marked social and cultural progress. Can the individual, the “I” - centric, embrace a new form of community and shared human experience? What about a religion of the future, centered on inner development rather than dogma, to bring people together with a knowing that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves?A personal and collective metamorphosis could revive the sacred nature of art, which throughout history has been an expression of humanity and a shared experience of a universal impulse.We explore the many questions and perceptions about a possible new global Renaissance in the first part of a Portals conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French - Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation.Among their insights:Religion is important because we won’t move beyond current crises through the lens of secular modernity where the ego is God; I think, therefore I am, and it’s all about my wants. We can integrate the questioning that came with modernity, but questioning in the service of truth. If we question just for the sake of questioning, it becomes a destructive force.We’re still discovering what the new emergence may look like, when it will appear, and its various expressions; yet we cannot not respond to that summoning upon our life.Belief is not faith. You can believe in anything, in the illusion and trap of your own mind. Faith is based on direct experience of something beyond you, of yourself as a human being.Ultimately you need something much bigger than yourself to transcend the problem of individuality and “me, me, me” that modernity gave us. A great learning from post - modernity is to integrate multiple perspectives; they’re a component of a greater pict ure, which is seeking of the truth.We are children of modernity, and I know the future is much bigger than me and demands me to grow. For the future to have a chance, a real shot, I need to go beyond myself.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “Second renaissance, I think, is to put a name onto what we're collectively experiencing, which is the death of modernity, and the birth of something to come, which we don't know yet. And that moment of death and birth is the second renaissance, like the first Renaissance, the first Renaissance appeared after great moment of difficulty of hardship with the Black Death, where many people died. And they could not say that they were going through the Renaissance.” (Rufus) “I remember asking a Zen teacher once, when do people change, I asked him, he said when they have to. So the point was that people normally needed quite serious crisis of some kind of fortunate personal life before they take on deep change. And similarly, as a civilization, the sad thing is, I think that we're going to have to confront a very significant crisis to really change.” (Rufus) “But art and religion are sacred, right? You can't touch them. But why can't we touch them? Because we're trying to say there's something of the essence that is untouchable, that is eternal. But somehow along the line, what becomes untouchable might be the words, rather than the essence, and or the cultural frame in which that religion was born.” (Sylvie) “People have a lot of maybe even collective trauma about the word religion. And it's important to heal that word. In using it I want to reconquer this word ‘religion’, which is to relink ourselves to each other and to something greater than ourselves. And I think art plays a huge part in that, because art is to express our humanity, what makes us human. We can so easily forget what makes us human. So I think it's essential to reconnect.” (Sylvie) “The dance is sometimes in describing all this stuff, it can seem really like wonderful, but a bit magical. It's like, you know, we need to go from "I" to "we". Sure! Yeah, and one big question is like, how do they connect? How do they dance between those, how do you actually dwell in those? That's a really rich question which even Buddha, you know even some of the great traditions don't really have a sense of like, how do you organize society? It's a very relative question, you know, what does it actually look like? You know, what does production look like? Buddha very wisely didn't talk about this.” (Rufus) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteLife Itself

With so much interest in creating a new type of collective living experience, it’s reasonable to wonder why the “we” space is seen to be so important in supporting the next big leap in evolution. What can’t the individual alone — me, just being me — accomplish? There is a deepening awareness that a new future, a transforming universal possibility, is revealing itself both through individuals and a collective experience: new configurations of people living, working, and creating together. Small and intimate; networks; experimental.The “me” is a fundamental step in personal development. Becoming a catalyst for a larger universal possibility isn’t just a solo act; it needs the power of collective intelligence and integrated capacity. Plus, the natural fulfillment of humans connecting and being together.“Collective” also may not be the best word to describe people coming together in a mutual purpose and vision that respects and allows the individual to be a “me,” inside a much more potent connected creative potential.To help us explore the many faces and possibilities of communal endeavors, Aviv Shahar is joined by Portals friend, author, consultant and Emmy Award-winning documentary film director Tucker Walsh, and musician Turquoise. Among their insights:In a very simple, practical way, it’s about being the change we want to see in the world; to show up in the way we want others to mirror; bringing the awareness that from a certain perspective everything in life is relational.An ecology of practice, whatever method, can offer increased capacity — the intentional wielding of the soma of the spirit, mind, body, soul, and great chain of being.We see the reintegration of the blessing realms — pursued since ancient times — now available in an open-source form for anyone who makes themselves available. Portals is an opportunity to decode, narrate, experience, and play together.  When we are down, confused, and depressed, it’s not that evolution stopped caring; it possibly reflects the accelerated and potentized nature of what’s emerging.The rise of the intellect, the dawn of the modernity project, and the myth of separation, are still a predominantly active actuality in the DNA of our mindsThis conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I call it sometimes a mystery seed. You don't know what's in the seed, but if you kind of wait and look and nourish it and grow, oh, look, it's going to be this thing, and then it turns into a flower, and then maybe the flower was a butterfly, and then, or, you know, it kind of moves and shifts and transforms. As long as you kind of oscillate on the edge there and kind of float on the edge as much as possible and get good and flow as a group, you can kind of move it forward, but be in relation to what you're adding to it or what we're adding to it.” (Turquoise) “Well, to stage us with the polarity that you introduced and build on this for a minute because yes, there is a way to not be part of the evolutionary process. A good provocation is a good reframe, and at the same time, in the imagery that you offered earlier, there are those people who gathered at the gathering, those people who stayed at home and did not show up for the gathering, and then there were those people who stayed in the gathering in some other periphery, and they were those who stepped into the hot tub experience.” (Aviv)“I think the risk of overly creating a menu, anything like this is how you make this recipe, is that it then becomes a fixed thing, and what I'm more interested in is, I guess, having an infinite number of recipes and then being like, well, how can we crisscross combine the recipes and not necessarily or entirely as a predetermined set course like you would when you go to a restaurant, but a sense of, like, what if the people that came to your restaurant sat down with them and you had a conversation and you said, Hey, how are you right now? How are you showing up? What was your day like today? What's your experience with food?” (Tucker) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteTucker WalshTurquoise. 

Imagine a process of healing that is powerful enough to restore wellbeing and transform a life, a family, a community with just a one-degree shift in perception or attention; a state of health and wholeness not defined by medicine or ecology, culture or location.In a time of cultural and environmental upheaval, the natural and regenerative paths to relief of anxiety, pain, and a sense of separation offer us deeper awareness of the true nature of healing — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. A healthy and balanced mind and body can be the natural outcome of a life rooted in the understanding that wholeness and healing are a human birthright, inherent in our design and purpose. The transforming perception of our natural integration and potential can be the journey of a lifetime, or it can happen in a single moment. In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by two practitioners with extensive experience in the process of restoration, wholeness, and healing: Lonny Jarrett, author, scholar, and teacher of East Asian medicine who has practiced acupuncture and herbology for more than 40 years, and Alexander Love, an acupuncturist, life coach, and cranial - sacral therapist, who brings a unique integration of modalities. Lonny and Alexander discuss their understanding and life-long experience with the healing process, including personal stories of trauma and regeneration. Among their insights:The main medicine the world needs now is to transcend ego and recognize our dependent arising, our intimate relationship with each other, and the biosphere in all things.We are trained from the youngest age to take everything personally, to know ourselves as separate individuals, in denial of the subtle spiritual dimensions of experience.We have a choice. It doesn't start with waiting for the other person; it starts with me. Maybe I get a little curious instead of self-righteous. Healing is an act of inquiry; it’s being present.How do we unfold the past in a way that is vibrant, awake, and full so the virtues and wisdom within those experiences of pain can inform our life today and become fertile ground?Each person is a portal into the one conscious. When we make a choice for the truth, even in the face of our own conditioning, it's the cosmos evolving.It’s an emergent process where everything frozen in time is released into the currency of this moment now; as if working with one person is working with the entire system, and potentially the whole world.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “So honestly, I can remember the moment when I was about three or four years old and my mother read me Bambi, and Bambi’s mother gets shot by a hunter, and I burst into tears, and she said when you grow up you can be a veterinarian, and I said, what's that? And they said, a doctor who takes care of sick animals, and righ t then and there I knew that I was going to go into medicine, and of course the medicine I eventually went into was not veterinary medicine, but I knew my whole life that that's what I was here for and that's what I was going to be doing.” (Lonny)“In a way, history isn't a burden, and it isn't a hauntology or a ghost that sort of grips us from beyond the grave. But it's been brought into the present as the cultivation of virtue from having faced fragment, and fragments realized its own nature as wholeness.” (Alexander)“So we can have gross levels of illness, and we need to take responsibility for the dimensions of them that we can, so getting enough sleep, hydrating, eating the best food we can, exercising, this sort of thing, but when it comes to the subtle and the very subtle dimensions, I would define illness as a misappropriation of attention. A conditioned identification with finite and materialistic dimensions of the self that perpetuate the illusion of separation and, from the perspective of wholeness, separation as pain.” (Lonny)“So for me, the starting point is a recognition that the past, the present, and the yet-to-be-fully-formed future are all right here, right now, the last 14 billion years, with all of their glory and all of their suffering. It's right here, right now. Not theoretically or philosophically, but it's unfolding at this moment. Some of it is these hidden pockets of history that we don't see. Some of it is visible, like the fact that I am able to speak in a language that took 1000s and 1000s of years to develop, and it's still a visible expression of something that has come previously.” (Alexander) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s Website

Just how important are relationships, really, to our health and happiness? What about to our sense of emotional and spiritual growth and fulfillment? We can trace the influence of intimacy on human development through evolution all the way back to the Big Bang. Humans are social in a way unlike anything else in the universe. The complexity, beauty and possibility of the many forms of human relationships have been a lifelong passion and pursuit of Dr. Keith Witt, pioneering integral psychotherapist, author and teacher. We met Dr. Keith in the first part of his conversation with Aviv Shahar, on the hero’s journey from “Trauma to Transcendence”. In part two of their conversation, Dr. Keith traces his own healing journey through early trauma, and the influence of the martial arts in his embrace of the complementary natures of the warrior and the healer. He reveals the inspiration behind his teaching and writing, and the experiences that helped form his core understanding that “everything is relationships”. Along the way, Dr. Keith also has deepened awareness of many dimensions of the human’s higher, universal nature and the ongoing evolution of consciousness. Among his insights, professional and personal:If we feel shame, return to the core value and either follow it, discard it, or modify and grow it to better fit what we believe is beautiful, good and true in the present moment. This is how moral systems grow.Research shows that having a secure primary relationship — taking care of your friendship and your love affair, resolving issues with each other — leads to the happiest, healthiest humans and families.In revealing the power of belief, research shows that the form of treatment isn’t as crucial as the therapist or practitioner doing something they believe in; clients or patients get healthier.Is there a spiritual impulse in teaching or therapy? To the extent you understand the secrets of the universe, and don't share them, you suffer. It’s distressing not to share what we believe to be effective.Attunement is the organizing principle; it’s being aware with acceptance and caring intent, first of ourselves — our breath, sensations, emotion, thoughts, judgment and desire.Fields exist outside of us that send flashes of insight through dreams and ideas. We access them when we surrender ourselves to service and to the beautiful, good and true.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “And weirdly, having a deep understanding of people's interiors makes you a better martial artist. Martial artists are very peaceful. It would require an awful lot to have me do violence to another person. So they're complementary systems.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “I enjoy teaching, and when I taught, people really enjoyed hearing about it, which was very gratifying. Some of it was just ego. But most of it wasn't. Most of it was that to the extent you understand the secrets of the universe and don't share them, you suffer. I was distressed about not sharing this stuff.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “If you reverse engineer our success with each other it tracks with the best social research that's been done on this which is by John Gottman and his group up in Seattle. It's pretty straightforward. You know a couple who cherish each other and are grateful for each other tend to do great. If they cherish each other and are grateful for each other and they put attention into their friendship and their love affair, intention into their friendship and their love affair, and then their ability to resolve and to heal injuries - they do great. They are the masters of intimacy, and they describe themselves as happy and they're happier and they're healthier.” (Dr. Keith Witt) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteDr. Keith’s Website

Is it a big stretch to think of struggling with trauma as part of a hero’s journey? Or is it integral for the hero’s transformation? How do we metabolize feeling weak or diminished by fear, anxiety and pain from traumatic events that at times can seem beyond our ability to cope? What if we understood that even the willingness to face a trauma will stimulate the parts of the brain responsible for resilience and, over time, build strength and courage? Advances in neuroscience have shed light on some of the brain’s hidden functions in times of pain and trauma, and the resulting influences on our responses and behavior. Moving through the phases of healing trauma is what builds the road to our eventual transformation. We apply emerging new wisdom and strength to reconcile and reshape our experiences with trauma, and perhaps inspire others on their own healing odyssey. A real hero’s journey. Unraveling the nature of trauma and its healing is the focus of this conversation between Aviv Shahar and Dr. Keith Witt, an internationally known integral psychotherapist, teacher and author of 15 books. Keith has conducted over 70,000 therapy sessions, written hundreds of blog posts, and appeared on numerous podcasts, including his own, The Shrink and The Pundit, and Witt & Wisdom.Among their insights:Conventional wisdom has been we’re all born equal and then the environment shapes us. Research has proved that to be entirely and dramatically wrong.Trauma is a natural part of the experience of life; it’s completely integral to the development journey. There are ways to work with trauma to facilitate our growth.A human being accessing their inherent “superpowers” to love and grow will get better, become more loving, and grow on whatever line they’re investing in. That’s the gift of consciousness.Once you lie to yourself, you do violence to yourself; you lie to somebody else, you do violence to another person. That’s not real compassion; it’s a defensive state masquerading as compassion.The essence of trauma learning has been being a victim and not having power. The essence of resilience is having agency, and living as if the rest of humanity are your companions, not your enemies.The culture is self-organizing away from comprehensive communication and towards confrontation. But conversation produces progress and solves problems.I am hopeful about humanity because all across the world people are dialed in, not just to spirituality, but also science, and to vast networks of incredible help and resources. It’s a great time to be alive.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “Anybody who does psychotherapy works with trauma, and there's been wonderful systems generated in the last 30 years for treating trauma, normalizing it, studying it, and so on. There's been a lot of neurobiology research, and I study a lot. It's one of the pleasures of my life to study systems, and I practice a lot of therapy, and I realized that the field didn't realize that trauma work proceeds through four stages. People intuitively understood it. If you talk to anybody in the field, say, Bessel van der Kolk or Francine Shapiro, some of those people if you teased it out, they would basically end up talking about these four stages, and I felt like an integral understanding of those four stages was important for psychotherapists because the principles are different in different stages.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “So, when you are practicing awareness with acceptance and caring intent for your interior experience, you're activating circuits in your frontal cortex, particularly your right frontal cortex, that are self-regulatory circuits. If you do that daily for a month, stem cells will divide into daughter cells and become integrative neurons that hardwire self-regulatory circuits from the front of the cerebral cortex back to the amygdala and hippocampus. So, all contemplative work creates the neural territory to be able to self-regulate. That's an important central feature of many systems.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “Dialed in means I feel comfortable in my life; I feel in charge of doing what I need to do; I feel confident and competent; I feel like my life works for me and I work for my life. My relationships are working for me, and so on. It's just that I'm in harmony with my life dialed in, integral mindfulness.” (Dr. Keith Witt) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteDr. Keith’s Website

Isn’t it curious the only species on the planet that appears concerned about or pursues the notion of “wholeness” is the human? Other highly intelligent and social animals — such as dolphins and elephants — show no evidence of feeling an inner fragmentation, separation from purpose, or impulse to connect with a source of higher intelligence. The comparison might be a bit humorous, but it’s a uniquely human feeling to have somehow become separated from the regenerative and creative forces that should naturally flow through and connect us with each other, the planet, and cosmos. Defining wholeness is a challenge: integrating mind and body? The physical and spiritual? The personal and the universal? Or is it found in being joined to something greater? Why is a feeling of separation so common? Perhaps it’s the accumulated pain and trauma, personal and collective; technology in many forms replacing human faculties and intimacy; an education system that churns out interchangeable parts for vast economic engines, instead of naturally aware and aligned human beings. In this conversation, we explore these inquiries and more. Aviv Shahar is joined by two next-gen leaders pioneering practical tools and assistance for creating less fragmented lives. Jenn Reilly founded Raising Wholeness, a new paradigm for parenting in wholeness, and Forrest Wilson, co-founder of Light in Action, an “incubator for consciousness” supporting projects and passion on the journey of wholeness.Among their insights:Permission was unlocked in the scientific revolution to separate and favor the exterior objective measure over interior forms of knowing. We need to reintegrate and become whole in ourselves. We’re being initiated to give birth to the more universal potential of human life, which says all that happened until now was childhood and youth; we’re just reaching adulthood in the universe. In these practical endeavors is the communal and network effect of more people and communities connecting and plugging and playing in the spaces of wholeness. Education is creating ecosystems for happy, healthy and fulfilled human beings to thrive, to cultivate their curiosities, to pursue their passions, creating a more beautiful life. By evolving and developing yourself, you become the best role model for your child. There is something new in the universe birthing itself through us, needing to emerge through the struggle of this time, through contradiction, through being triggered with your child.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “There's the pieces of just how we're showing up and then there's also I feel the implications of how we were conditioned and raised in our culture, our society, and even in our home unit and the ways that we are born whole, born into this beautiful being, and in the ways that we've been fragmented through trauma, through just seeking attention, seeking acceptance and we cut off parts of ourselves and there are so many different layers to how that's happening in our consciousness.” (Jenn) “So if you look at conventional reality, if anyone is familiar with startup incubators, what we did was, my business partners and I created an incubator for people who are pursuing the path to wholeness, who are on the journey to wholeness and in that journey to wholeness they have a project, a purpose project, a passion project, and a way that supports themselves financially. That is cohesiveness in the being and becoming a more whole journey.” (Forrest) “The moment we realize our sapiens - ness, we step through into homo universalis. But I wonder personally if that doesn't necessarily, since we are interconnected and nothing is separate in the whole, that does not necessarily cause an upshift for all other species on the planet in the universe, and so what I wonder is that when you speak about the oak tree, when you speak about the other animals in the world, we're the only organism that orients this way.” (Aviv) “I guess just one thing that's still alive in me is that there is something around what Forrest was saying that developmental lens and understanding exactly... Because there's the piece of how we are supporting different developmental stages and that awareness, having that knowledge in your pocket as a parent is so relieving. It is so relieving to know that the three-year-old is still building the neural pathways to hold multiple emotions at the same time.” (Jenn) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteRaising WholenessLight in Action

The popular concept of emotional intelligence only begins to scratch the surface of understanding the true nature and power of the human emotion. Emotions can uplift and heal and transform a life or relationship. They can also inflict and become self-destructive; lead us to either our salvation or downfall. Some people believe the emotion plays a central role in human evolution. Why is an energy so powerful and personal often so unpredictable and seemingly hard to manage? A clue is in the word: “emotion” comes from a Latin derivative meaning “energy in motion”. Emotion isn’t static; it creates energetic pathways connecting people with themselves, with one another, with their communities, and the universe. The real emotion problem is not emotion itself; it’s how we use the most powerful energy naturally generated by our human design. In this new episode of “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Sha har and David Price Francis delve deeper into the nature, mystery, and larger potential of human emotions. The conversation adds a new chapter to the unfolding story of the human predicament.Among their insights:A species guarantees its continuance more through tribal arrangements than just individual DNA. It’s the logic of why human emotions are a self - preservation technology.The emotion that evolved in humans engenders the capacity to care, share, and bond — the qualities that nudge and lead us to collaborate and work together.There are dimensions in the universe that need higher human sensitivity and resonance. It’s logical the universe would support the emergence of compassionate life that's more like itself than not.Summoning the emotion is engaging the most powerful energy we have access to. It can be overwhelming if not used wisely. The balance is found in living in harmony with the emotion.We're not victims of our emotions; we can elevate our understanding and use the emotions as objects of purpose inside the theater of our experience.Emotional energy can be very potent healing; seeking with our minds to harness the heart-centered energy and move together to a particular purpose, like healing another person.This conversation builds on concepts and insights first explored in The Energy Problem. It is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “One way I look at human beings is as having three major channels or pipes for energy. There are three major expressions: energy in, energy out, and we're always in process. So those are the three things I look at in us: we have mental energy; we have emotional energy, whatever that is, and we're going to get into it; and we have physical energy, which is inside the physical energy.” (David)“It's so when there's an empathy flow, there's very much that connection between the two people between whom the energy is flowing, and there's a very interesting difference there between the person whose energy primarily flows about themselves for themselves, which is more where we get these expressions like narcissistic c rage or narcissistic display, and so they're still emotions, but the emotions stay inside that person's field and are held for them, and this is where you get the person who's able to act emotionally.” (David) “So a compass is something that goes 360 degrees. So it's almost like you take the compass and you have your center point, and you can draw a circle, and the idea of real compassion is that it doesn't just go to a person who's your friend, or it doesn't go to a particular cause. But to release suffering in the world, it takes a 360-degree approach, like the sun shining on everybody at once. So that, to me, is very much the seat of that devotional practice, and we're both wearing what appears to be what looks like regulation blue.” (David) “So you can take your emotional fuel and burn it up very rapidly with a bout of hot anger, you can be in the car, and someone comes past you, and you start yelling, and you go into road rage. But then, is that the best use of that fuel? And I think that's a kind of wisdom about the person, so I have the right to it. Well, yes, you do. You have the right to eat coal. You have the right to do many things. With that permission, you can go for it. But just have that pause. Is it really the best thing to do for your life? Or is there a better way to use it?” (David) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEnergy Worlds

Many of us are getting robbed every day, whether we know it or not. We just may be robbing ourselves, too, without fully understanding the consequences of our behavior. It could be through ignorance, lack of attention, or bad decisions. Whatever the cause, we’re getting robbed of the very energy that enables good health, inspiration, and possibility of higher connection, all to the detriment of our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. What do we mean? Throughout Portals we explore the energetic nature of human life: our physical systems, mind and body balance, creativity, and natural connections to higher intelligence and expanding awareness, all depend on different levels and natures of energy. Every feeling, idea, and thinking pattern carries energetic potential; we are continually generating or consuming energy from internal and external sources. But what quality of energy? Nourishing or depleting, toxic or regenerative, we can choose. In the latest chapter of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis guide us through a deeper look at our energetic nature and the five basic fuels we use to generate energy. They explore the various energy ‘robbers’ that can leave us susceptible to imbalance and ill health.We live between two worlds: the visible and matter; and the invisible and energy. We need to understand both, and the purpose or direction in which we travel in both worlds. These core self-insights — how to manage our energy, our cycles, our emotions — ought to be part of the knowledge of a life, but are usually left out of education. As the size of the energy problem and challenge grows, new energy potentials and energy sources are coming online to help us re-naturalize to planetary and universal frequencies. The invitation is to reground in our natural system; to become more aware of how we consume each of the five basic types of energy and become more intelligent about the value of sleep. It’s the predicament of being addicted to the easy fast solution, easy fast food, easy fast energy sources. We develop our willpower by growing our will not power — what we say ‘no’ to. It expands what we can say ‘yes’ to, and uses our energies in a more purposeful way.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “My understanding of the word ‘ education ’ in its origin is that it comes from the Latin word "educare," which apparently means to lead out from inside. ” ( David ) “Well, I think beginning today because it's always beginning in the now, what do we call a human with no energy? But I thought of a dead body. That's what a human is — without any energy whatsoever — and even then, there's a process of decomposition that causes certain kinds of energies to leave. So we compose and we decompose as human beings, right? But for a human being with no energy input, you can say the closest thing to it is a coma. But when you go beyond that stage, we move into the process we call death. So death is the departure of the energies that keep us alive. ” (David) “If somebody drinks polluted liquid over a period of time, they're going to disrupt their system through the liquid food. If someone starves themselves of oxygen, or if you've taken yourself too far away from a source of full spectrum lighting, that's where in the northern climates now they have special light boxes to emit full spectrum lighting that they found brings greater harmony and benefit to the human system. So we can cause that erosion and fragmentation through environmental reasons. ” (David) “So I think of the idea of the ‘ Sun Salutation ’ in yoga; it's not a posture, although it is as well, but it's the idea of going out into the sun, being in the sunshine, and getting nutrients from the sun. So this would be structuring our lives for maximal nutrition at four levels, and then in the fifth level, it will be being aware of what we're introducing ourselves to. So something about our eyes - it's very interesting.” (David) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEnergy Worlds

What is the power of a motivating purpose in one’s life? What happens when our chosen purpose seems to run out? What do we do when the expected fulfillment at the high point of a career or other life quest feels empty, less thrilling, than anticipated? How do you recalibrate when the change you worked so hard to catalyze has a timeline that doesn’t match our expectations? For example, consider what we call the corporate refugees, executives who ticked all the right boxes, made the money, but still find something missing; or veteran change makers and leaders, who might wonder if their driving energy has been used up or burned out. How can any one of us, at any stage in our lives, discover a sense of renewal that propels us forward in harmony with an evolving world and universe?In this conversation, Aviv Shahar explores the many levels and expressions of human purpose with Holly Woods, author, consultant, transformation leader and founder of the Emergence Institute. Holly works directly with people from all paths and levels of accomplishment to discover and re-enliven their purpose and passion. She generously uses her own journey of success and shadow to illuminate a life of self-discovery and change. Among their insights:Living ‘on purpose’ is to look squarely at your greatest sorrows and joys, find the connection between them over time, and see they are flip sides of the same coin. Neither is right or wrong; both illuminate who you really are.Many leaders in the transformational arena spend their lives looking, unconsciously, for the next inspiration but are afraid to move out of their existing structures.Enlightenment isn’t a destination. We are in an epochal shift with an evolving story; we are forever pushing the void, the frontier, in an on-the-move realization.A form of burnout is doing something in a similar way consistently over time; when the world shifts and it no longer works, we don't know how to adapt.Veteran changemakers will struggle in a transition as their world shifts: they've gained perspective, but their capacity hasn't expanded; another version of themselves wants to emerge.Next-gen leaders can grow impatient with the pace of change, and the impatience can be externalized as righteousness. It’s also the impatience of a person with themselves.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “It's the belief that has haunted us: that we are individuals making our way through work and effort, and that sort of linear cause-and-effect mechanistic version of life separates us from the whole and limits our ability to work with on behalf of and in receipt of the energy that's available to us.” (Holly) “Very important point, and the fulfillment that comes earlier in life when in earlier stages of human development is more concrete, more real-world material world items, and then we move into more intellectual social expectations, and then at some point as we're developing as humans, we gain capacity to see beyond those things, and it becomes more about the internal fulfillment. So earlier fulfillment is usually related being externally oriented, with their family culture, community, corporate, and peer group expectations about what success looks like, and generally, we think of being fulfilled when I've achieved those expectations, so it is a very different kind of fulfillment, and when we wake up to what's inside of us, our internal milieu, we say, ‘ Oh, there's something I'm missing; I'm maybe happy sometimes, but I don't have joy. I don't have a life force; it's missing from me, ’ and when people wake up, they really have a deep desire and longing for that, and I can speak more about what the longing actually is, but it's really at a later stage of development.” (Holly) “Sometimes they have successful businesses, sometimes not, and sometimes they come to me after they've been struggling for a long time. But not always; sometimes they're in the middle of their business and it's going well, and they scaled, and they're like, "Oh, I have all these things going, but it doesn't mean anything to me anymore.” They're kind of a mix of the other two categories. They often have figured out how to be successful in the material world.” (Holly ) “I used to tell my clients, ‘ We're going to do these things, we're going to discover your purpose, we're going to do shadow work, and then it's going to be like magic. ’ I didn't even know how to explain it. I don't know what happens, but it just does, and it is magic. It shows up a lot, and now I understand it more fully. So, synchronicity is a huge part of my work, and I now understand it, and it really is alignment, which means that discovery through the shadow work helps resolve become clearer and more free of those limitations and constrictions, and then taking small steps into the world to invite in opportunities and, boom, it shows up. It still feels like magic. But I now understand fully how to create that opportunity for my clients. So, it is synchronistic for the vast majority of my clients. We get to a place, and there's usually a session where something happens there, like all kinds of awareness has happened, and then people in other places start showing up.” (Holly) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEmergence Institute

We’re about to get a close-up look at how a creative and successful business leader is using his remarkable experience and passion to transform the civic and business landscape. It’s the latest chapter in an accomplished life dedicated to creating positive change in diverse communities. In his 22-year career at Microsoft, Robbie Bach led the creation and development of Xbox, the highly popular and successful video gaming system, in addition to other critical creative and leadership roles. In 2015 he published his first book, Xbox Revisited: A Game Plan for Corporate and Civic Renewal, and in 2021 he published his first novel, The Wilkes Insurrection. Robbie continues his leadership as consultant, catalyst, and speaker to civic, corporate, and university communities. In this conversation with Aviv Shahar, Robbie describes his current endeavors as “civic engineering,” the work we do every day to improve and transform our communities. He traces his personal journey from corporate leader to bridge builder — bringing together polarized political leaders in Washington, D.C., by creating new opportunities for working together. Robbie has an insider’s perspective on the role of technology and media in culture and communities, and is open about the religious faith that helps shape his worldview. Robbi e shares with Aviv some of his insights and advice, including:The American experiment is about the middle — the bell curve. When the bell curve gets torn apart by extremes and polarities, we’ve got a problem.My generation has to take accountability for allowing this cynicism to seep into our society through lack of strong leadership. We are handing the next generation a world in a not very good situation.I look to people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and say it's going to be your world. If the environment is going to be fixed and we can still keep the lights on, you have to figure out how to do that.Grace is recognizing what's going on around us, what's happening to us, and knowing there have been purpose and achievement along the way; then being grateful for the good and the bad that have shaped our lives.If you're dealing with anxiety, find a way to talk about it and turn it into something productive; find a friend, a counselor, a coach, a spouse, whoever it is; don't be shy about asking for help.The ability to overcome is one of the most important character traits people can develop.Tragedy is a place where we learn and grow; it's where we triumph. It's where we figure ourselves out. It's where we say, Who am I? What am I doing?Take the long road, have a plan, and then know it’s going to change and be excited about it. You might have to zag a bit to be successful or get started, but that's okay.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “The other thing that I think has changed is the whole context of media. I'll say, in particular, social media, but broadcast media has fallen into the same trap, where all of our leaders feel like they're on 24/7. And the problem with that a) God knows who wants to live that life, that's a separate problem. But the bigger problem with that is, if you're on 24/7, in that world, you're constantly trying to make political points. And the fact is, when you got most of these people away from the cameras and away from the keyboard, they're actually pretty reasonable people.” (Robbie) “When I talk at universities, I do a lot of guest lecturing. And usually, that's business strategy, leadership, the things that you know, come from my Microsoft and Xbox experience. But I always at the end, talked about three things. I talked about faith, I talked about perseverance. And I talked about serendipity.” (Robbie) “In a dialogue, we're one of the characters here of the words, we must all overcome our fear. We must proclaim the true meaning of Islam. We must make people understand that Islam means peace. And she says, I may not practice all aspects of Islam, but it forms the fabric of my principles and beliefs. It shapes who I am and how I care for others. Islam is a faith-based in modesty, forgiveness, tolerance, and morality. So when I read this, in this paragraph, you obviously you've had to find the sense of empathy and embrace of otherness.” (Robbie) “ You know, in the middle of summer, there's not a lot of change going on. Things are sort of green, the weather sort of is what it is, and you're sort of waiting for something to happen in winter. Look, something new is going to come from this. The question is, do we see the opportunity to shape it or not? If we just let it happen, what will come may not be to our like, if we see it as an opportunity, we can shape it and turn it into something that is to our liking. That is wonderful. And that gives us the ability for that next generation that I was talking about to have a really fruitful and intentional adventure.” (Robbie) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteRobbie Bach

In many Portals conversations we explore the nature of the emerging new universal possibility not as a separate and distant change, but as a living reality — an uplifting evolutionary impulse that can transform lives, communities and our planetary ecology. Especially in a time of political and environmental upheaval, how do we discover and more fully engage with the real potential of personal and collective transformation? What is the nature of leadership in a transformational journey of people and communities whose vision is to co-create a positive, sustainable future for humanity and the planet? In this conversation we get a deeper look at the kind of leadership that can facilitate emerging universal change and transformation. Aviv Shahar is joined by Geoff Fitch and Abigail Lynam, from Pacific Integral and Generating Transformative Change (GTC) North America. Jeff and Abigail recount their personal journeys of change and growth, and many years of leading the transformational experience of groups and individuals on three continents.Among their insights and learnings:My greatest fear became my greatest opening.If we don't do anything, we don’t make mistakes. So the idea is to create more and better mistakes; new mistakes, rather than repeating the old ones.Humanity is in the midst of a profound period of change; the opportunity of our time requires us to embrace universal human values, ethical action, and engage our evolutionary potential.Unless we find a better way to engage generational resources, wisdom, and collaboration, our chances of meeting som e of the difficult challenges are dramatically reduced.It’s how individuals can show up in the development of the collective; we can bring our greatest potential and fullest selves to hold a space of leadership for when it's our time.What makes this poss ible is we all have gifts and blind spots; we're all on our own evolutionary journey. We're whole and beautiful as we are – and we’re ready.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “There have been dozens of people involved in developing and facilitating the program over the years and we are a community of practice. So we've been in the heat of it. It's not us coming from a place of, oh, we figured it out and now we're going to lay it out for you. We are in the practice ourselves and have been since the very beginning and in deep collected process.” (Geoff) “The thing I wanted to add to what you're speaking to Geo ff is one of the ways to hold the work is to say it's about being in relationship with ourselves, who we are and who we're becoming in relationship with one another.” (Abigail) “So one of the projections that we have about later stages of development is that there's somehow more mature, more whole, more complete. But one of my little tricks for counteracting that idealization, they're also more immature, you know, in a way, the most mature stage that we have is baby. It's like you, when you're born, you already know, you're an expert baby, you have it completely nailed, right. As you progress, you learn and grow.” (Abigail) “If you're accessing later stages of consciousness at an earlier age, sometimes that can mean that there are other aspects of the self that aren't as fully robust. And so how to support this sort of widening or growing out into the spaces that the self already has access to, how to stabilize, and how to integrate and work with the parts of ourselves that are less mature, is one of the challenges that we've witnessed.” (Abigail) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteA Community Of Leaders GTCPacific Integral