Dangerous Wisdom

https://dangerouswisdom.org/Manda Scott’s novel ANY HUMAN POWER is a Thrutopian Political Thriller aimed to craft a path through from exactly where we are to a flourishing future that we’d be proud to leave behind to the generations that come after us and for those who will inherit the planet after we die.The novel helps us explore the question: How do you help the people you love create a future you’re proud to leave behind?Manda is a bestselling storyteller who brings together myths and speculative futures with a radical compassion, comes the story of a family at the heart of a political crisis and the ensuing uprising of a disenfranchised generation. A family that harnesses the skills and stories needed for real change, if they can choose the right path, before it is too late.Manda Scott is an award-winning novelist and host of the acclaimed Accidental Gods podcast. Best known for the Boudica: Dreaming series, her previous novels have been short-listed for the Orange Prize, the Edgar, Wilbur Smith and Saltire Awards and won the McIllvanney Prize.Her latest novel ANY HUMAN POWER is a Mytho-Political thriller which lays out a Thrutopian road map to a Dlourishing future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. With degrees in veterinary medicine and a Masters in Regenerative Economics, Manda’s life is oriented towards creating radical new narratives that will pave the way to the total systemic change our culture – and our world – needs. Any Human Power is available for sale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Any-Human-Power-Manda-Scott/dp/1914613562Readers can connect with Manda Scott on Facebook, Bluesky, Goodreads, Instagram,and LinkedIn.To learn more, visit https://mandascott.co.uk/ and https://accidentalgods.life

https://dangerouswisdom.org/https://www.leahmoranrampy.com/earth-and-soul-book.htmlAmidst accelerating climate devastation and an uncertain future comes a clarion call to renew a deep and personal relationship with Earth.Facing directly into the devastation of climate chaos and biodiversity loss, Rampy leads her readers on a soul journey into grief and loss to also claim the beauty, joy and possibilities available when we reconnect with Earth. As we follow the author’s compelling personal experiences and engagingly lyrical stories of whales, cedars, sparrows, and more, we see the necessity and urgency of learning from the wisdom of our kin in the natural world.Writing at the intersection of spirituality, ecology, and story, Leah Rampy illuminates a path to reweaving nature and soul. Under Rampy’s deft guidance, the beauty and genius of this sacred world unfolds before us. Even now when the world as we knew it is ending and a new story lies beyond what we can envision, we may live fully alive and lay stepping stones toward a diverse and vibrant world of oneness and mutual flourishing.Leah Rampy is an experienced speaker, retreat leader, and writer with a focus on soul and Earth connections. She is on the program staff of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation where she previously served as executive director and is the Senior Spiritual Program Leader for the Center for Spirituality and Nature. In 2019 she founded Church of the Wild Two Rivers which she continues to lead. Prior careers include teaching in public schools and universities, serving in leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies, providing executive coaching and leadership development through a company she founded, and non-profit management. Rampy holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum from Indiana University. She lives with her husband in a co-housing community in Shepherdstown, WV.

https://www.spiritofhorse.com/https://books.innertraditions.com/the-council-of-horses-oracle/https://dangerouswisdom.org/The Horse stands out as a medial figure, a spirit being who can carry us across thresholds of insight and initiation. Shamans and other spiritual adepts have long turned to the symbolic and spiritual presence of the horse to arrive at healing and transformational vision.We discuss in particular her Council of Horses Oracle Deck (co-authored along with Sandra Wallin), including a reading that will be relevant for listeners and viewers. This deck, made up of paintings carefully crafted by Kim, allows us to tap into the divine wisdom of horses for guidance and self-transformation.The deck includes 40 beautifully illustrated cards featuring horse avatars and mythic equine beings such as unicorns, kelpies, Pegasus, and ChironThe guidebook shares the message of each card, guidance to help you determine if you are on the right path or need a nudge in a more positive direction, as well as suggested actions to help you integrate the lessons from the Council of HorsesAllowing you to tap into the earthly and spiritual wisdom of horses, this oracle embraces humanity’s millennia-old relationship with horses as interactive guides to transformation.Each beautifully illustrated card conveys the captivating presence of the horse, offering an encounter with the equine soul while transmitting healing frequencies directly from the mystical Council of Horses. Serving as portals of transformation, the cards allow you to actively engage with horses as sentient beings who choose to support the well-being of humankind.The accompanying book explains how to work with the cards, alongside a history of the horse as an intermediary between humans and the divine. From modern-day mystics to legendary horse avatars like unicorns, kelpies, Pegasus, and Chiron, the horse of each card offers guidance and courageous questions to help you determine if you are on the right path, off track, or need a nudge in a more positive direction. Kim McElroy is an award-winning equine artist renowned for her visionary artistic and written creations. Blessed by her horse mentors, she is the illustrator of Way of the Horse wisdom cards. She lives in Kingston, Washington.

https://dangerouswisdom.org/Meditation can become one of the most dangerous acts of defiance against ignorance in all its forms, from injustice and inequality to ecological degradation and the loss of meaning and connection. But, in order to take full advantage of the potentials of meditation while limiting unwanted side-effects, we need proper education, training, and guidance. The most dangerous forms of meditation are dangerous only to ignorance, and they arise from holistic paths of life and learning.The Buddhist traditions offer some of the most holistic, comprehensive, and varied meditation teachings and practices available to us. In book, A Meditator's Guide to Buddhism, Cortland Dahl translates the Buddhist traditions into a framework that can guide us in our current context.Cortland Dahl, Ph.D. is a leading expert on mindfulness, meditation, and the science of wellbeing. His eclectic background includes long periods of solitary retreat in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal and the translation of ancient Tibetan meditation manuals, as well as cutting-edge research on the science of wellbeing and the creation of an acclaimed meditation app. He is a scientist, author, translator, entrepreneur, and meditation teacher, but his true passion is using ancient wisdom and modern science to help people flourish.More information:https://cortlanddahl.com/https://tergar.org/https://hminnovations.org/meditation-app

https://dangerouswisdom.org/Does a psychedelic microdose offer dangerous wisdom?Jim Fadiman, one of the most venerable leaders in the psychedelic renaissance of the dominant culture, together with Buddhist yogini and holistic health practitioner Rachael Henrichsen, join us to discuss Jim's new book, Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance---the first comprehensive book on microdosing. Microdosing potentially offers some wonderful dangerous wisdom. You can find the book, and also report your experiences with microdosing, here: https://www.microdosingbook.com/Find Rachael here: https://redgateintegrativemedicine.comIn the introduction to his book, Jim writes:I’ve been investigating psychedelics, professionally and personally, since the early 1960’s. Until 15 years ago I knew nothing about very small doses, nor did anyone else I knew. However, I’ve focused on little else since then, discovering, reviewing, and sharing the extraordinary results that people have reported after taking a 10th or less of a full-on psychedelic trip dose. During all those other decades I was fixated on transcendent doses (not concert, not recreational, not therapeutic, not even problem solving). As I reflect on what I know now, I am filled with wonder and chagrin as well as gratitude and humility. I was introduced to psychedelics one night at a sidewalk cafe in Paris in 1961, when my favorite professor, Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass), put a pill into my hand and said, “The greatest thing in the world has happened to me, and I want to share it with you.” A few months later, no longer in Paris, I was a draft-dodging psychology graduate student at Stanford University. Apart from my academics, I worked off-campus with a private clinic that was pioneering psychedelic psychotherapy. There, I took a high dose of LSD in a safe, guided environment and had an incredible awakening, becoming aware of the interconnectedness of all things. That realization and its aftermath has shaped the rest of my life. These days, there is an ever-expanding number of books by people recounting how all of those astounding, amazing, fantastic trips changed their lives. This is not one of those. It is, instead, about how thousands and thousands of people all over the world have improved their health and their capacities without the razzle dazzle, heaven-opening, reality-expanding experiences that made the 60’s such an optimistic culture-changing decade.

Anyone who listens to this episode can enjoy Kelly's course, How to Lead a Transformative Life, for free! Here are the details: 100% off of How to Lead a Transformative Life - worth $457Use EQUUS100KWTwo consecutive Saturdays for two hours (four hours total)Here is a link to the course:https://www.theequusacademy.org/courses/how-to-lead-a-transformative-life-2025How can horses lead transformations in human souls and in human cultures? They do this by presencing an ancient wisdom that always appears vibrantly alive and alove. A “flying lead change” allows a running horse to respond with breathtaking grace to changing conditions. “Collectively, we need a similar physics-defying maneuver,” Wendorf writes in her book, Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living. Kelly and I discuss her book, which offers an essential guide to nature-based leadership inspired by the wisdom of indigenous teachings and horses.Kelly locates a common element to the challenges and crises of our modern age in disconnection―from each other, our planet, and the sense that our lives have purpose and meaning. Kelly's work offers a new approach to leading and living inspired by two profound sources of ancient wisdom: original peoples and Equus (the horse), grounded in evidence-based principles of neuroscience.Her book discusses the key elements to a horse-inspired approach, including:• Listening―the starting point for all leadership, in which we suspend our biases and preferences• Care―explore the ancient, indigenous understanding of care that is reciprocal, empathic, and beneficial to all• Presence―meeting the here and now with vulnerability, openness, and a stable foundation• Safety―how a masterful leader creates a sense of group resilience and strength by “leading from behind” for the welfare of all• Connection―ways to move away from coercion and force to promote genuine communication and belonging• Peace―creating group harmony right now through the surprising concepts of “congruence” and “tempo”• Freedom―returning to our wild nature that is inherently free, unbridled, and unbroken• Joy―moving beyond temporary happiness to a state of wholehearted engagement of life, whatever the circumstancesKelly Wendorf, MCC, MECDFounder and CEO of EQUUSKelly Wendorf is an ICF (International Coach Federation) Master Certified Coach, published author, spiritual mentor, disruptor, and socially responsible entrepreneur.Her early experiences were vitally and deeply shaped by the natural and ancient world around her where she learned a way of listening to forces within people, nature and moments. This unconventional education grants her a gift of perception that liberates untapped potential and hidden gifts within individuals and organizations, helping them to solve problems differently through a wisdom-informed and wholeness approach.Throughout her life she has lived and worked around the world, studying with many spiritual and Indigenous leaders in India, Africa, Indonesia and Australia. Such immersion in multi-cultural perspectives has honed a passion for creating a new narrative in the human condition, empowering high-performing individuals, organizations, and their leaders to wield meaningful change in their families, communities, and in the world through servant leadership and innovative business development. She has worked inside a spectrum of clientele – from Amazon, to Microsoft to some of the most underserved communities. She has been called a ‘corporate shaman’ and a ‘CEO whisperer’. She is known for being a trustworthy translator of ancient cosmologies to contemporary relevance.Kelly founded, edited and published Kindred magazine (Australia), an evidence-based publication that explores the social, cultural and biological underpinnings of a...

Coltrane Lord is a Psychedelic Integration Specialist, Artist-Healer, and Foundress of Wonderland Project, a nonprofit organization that connects marginalized women who suffer PTSD due to domestic violence, rape, or sexual exploitation to trauma informed psychedelic plant medicines care and integration.Coltrane is interested in the intersection of spirituality and science, ancient wisdom for modern times, and how our unique perspectives can merge to elevate the soul of humanity & reverence for the planet. More in depth info:wonderlandproject.lovelordcoltrane.com

Writer Derrick Jensen joins us to discuss politics, ecology, and philosophy.

Is trauma real? In what sense? These questions don't in any way deny the real suffering of people diagnosed with trauma. Instead, they ask how we might take a broader and deeper look at trauma, in order to heal and transcend it. How can we do better in reducing the emergence of traumatizing experiences, and how can we do better in supporting ourselves and other in healing from these experiences, and opening up new possibilities for evolutionary learning?In her book Spacious Minds, anthropologist and clinical psychologist Sara E. Lewis invites us to see that resilience is not a mere absence of suffering. Sara's research reveals how those who cope most gracefully may indeed experience deep pain and loss. Looking at the Tibetan diaspora, she challenges perspectives that liken resilience to the hardiness of physical materials, suggesting people should "bounce back" from adversity. More broadly, this ethnography calls into question the tendency to use trauma as an organizing principle for all studies of conflict where suffering is understood as an individual problem rooted in psychiatric illness.Beyond simply articulating the ways that Tibetan categories of distress are different from biomedical ones, Spacious Minds shows how Tibetan Buddhism frames new possibilities for understanding resilience. Here, the social and religious landscape encourages those exposed to violence to see past events as impermanent and illusory, where debriefing, working-through, or processing past events only solidifies suffering and may even cause illness. Resilience in Dharamsala is understood as sems pa chen po, a vast and spacious mind that does not fixate on individual problems, but rather uses suffering as an opportunity to generate compassion for others in the endless cycle of samsara. A big mind view helps to see suffering in life as ordinary. And yet, an intriguing paradox occurs. As Lewis deftly demonstrates, Tibetans in exile have learned that human rights campaigns are predicated on the creation and circulation of the trauma narrative; in this way, Tibetan activists utilize foreign trauma discourse, not for psychological healing, but as a political device and act of agency.Sara Lewis, PhD, LCSW is co-founder and Director of Training and Research at Naropa University's Center for Psychedelic Studies. Sara earned her PhD at Columbia University in medical anthropology and public health; her research sits at the intersection of religion, culture and healing with an emphasis on non-ordinary states. As a Fulbright scholar, she conducted long term ethnographic research in India, culminating in her book, Spacious Minds: Trauma and Resilience in Tibetan Buddhism, which investigates how Buddhist concepts of mind shape traumatic memory and pathways to resilience. As a contemplative psychotherapist, she specializes in intergenerational trauma and healing through Somatic Experiencing and psychedelic-assisted therapy.

The dominant cultural worldview is based upon extraction and exploitation practices that have brought us to the precipice of social, environmental, and climate collapse. Braiding poetic storytelling, climate justice and deep cultural analyses, and the collective knowledge of Earth-centered cultures, The Story is in Our Bones opens a portal to restoration and justice beyond the end of a world in crisis.Author, activist, and changemaker Osprey Orielle Lake weaves together ecological, mythical, political, and cultural understandings and shares her experiences working with global leaders, systems-thinkers, climate justice activists, and Indigenous Peoples. She seeks to summon a new way of being and thinking in the Anthropocene, which includes transforming the interlocking crises of colonialism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and ecocide, to build thriving Earth communities for all.Lake calls forth historical memory of who we are in the Earth's lineage to bring into being the world we keenly long for, at the delicate threshold of great peril or great promise.For anyone grieving our collective loss and wanting to take action, The Story is in Our Bones is a vital guide to remaking our world. This hopeful, engaging, and creatively lyrical work reminds readers that another world is possible, and provides a desperately needed antidote to the pervasive despair of our time.Osprey Orielle Lake is the founder and executive director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). She works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition. She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Osprey’s writing about climate justice, relationships with nature, women in leadership, and other topics has been featured in The Guardian, Earth Island Journal, The Ecologist, Ms. Magazine and other publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on Coast Miwok lands.To learn more, go to: https://ospreyoriellelake.earth www.wecaninternational.org

A super special episode with the magical yogini Drukmo Gyal, a sonic shaman and practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism who bridges Tibetan traditions and global healing. Born into a family of Ngakpas in the culturally rich Amdo region of Tibet, Drukmo Gyal's life has been steeped in the practices of mantra and meditation from a young age. Growing up in a diverse community in Rebgong, she was immersed in an environment where spiritual practices were a daily ritual.Her journey in traditional healing began with studies in Tibetan medicine in Amdo, after which she furthered her expertise by working for Sorig Khang Estonia (EATTM) and studying under Dr. Nida Chenatsang, a renowned Tibetan physician and lineage holder of the Yuthok Nyingthig - the spiritual healing tradition of Tibetan Medicine.Combining her passion for singing with her knowledge of Tibetan medicine, she has sought to create healing concerts that nurture the body, speech, and mind. She has collaborated with musicians worldwide, producing five albums of Tibetan Healing Mantras and Prayers, and she has shared her work in over 30 countries through concerts, lectures, and courses.Drukmo Gyal also serves as an international teacher and guide for Sorig Khang International and as the lead organizer of SKY Estonia. Their team is committed to establishing a Tibetan Medicine Healing & Education Centre in Estonia to bring this ancient wisdom to the Baltic states and Finland, focusing on learning, healing, and cultural exchange.https://www.drukmogyal.com/

An essential aspect of philosophy or LoveWisdom: How do we move forward in our lives? Maybe you have some problem or challenge in your personal life, or in your professional life. Or maybe you can sense the general stuckness of humanity, and maybe you even take that to be your own stuckness. Given all the confusion of the world, all the fear and uncertainty within our own soul and in the soul of the world, how can we find genuinely creative and beautiful ways to cultivate our lives forward, and cultivate the life of the world forward at the same time?It turns out we can only move forward in the most vitalizing and liberating ways if we also move backward at the same time. It’s an aspect of one of the basic paradoxes of LoveWisdom, and we’re going to explore it in today’s episode.

The Artefact: Holographic Habits and Healing, Part 1We inquire into the nature of habit and freedom, the meaning of life, and how we can do our jobs and live together while feeling good in our mind, heart, and body, and feeling good about ourselves, about how we are living and loving.

Dialogue with a spiritual visionary. Cynthia Jurs experienced that almost comical spiritual archetypal pattern of meeting a wise old yogi in a mountain cave. She thought long and hard about what to ask him. His reply sent her on a remarkable spiritual pilgrimage.In this very special episode of Dangerous Wisdom, Cynthia shares her incredible journey, which she documents in her book, Summoned by the Earth: Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our World. This is one of my favorite guests!Cynthia Jurs received Dharmacharya transmission from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh to become a teacher in his Order of Interbeing in 1994. In 2018, she was made an honorary lama in the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in recognition of her thirty years of pilgrimage into diverse communities and ecosystems around the world to carry out the Earth Treasure Vase Global Healing Practice. Today Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma in service to Gaia that is deeply rooted in the feminine, honoring indigenous cultures, and devoted to collective awakening. Cynthia leads meditations, retreats, courses, and pilgrimages to support the emergence of a global community of engaged and embodied sacred activists. You can find her teachings and connect with her global community at: www.GaiaMandala.netand learn about her book at: www.summonedbytheearth.org

Video version here: https://youtu.be/FtDBx1IBkoAA spiritual pioneer, Phyllis Curott is an attorney, writer and one of America’s first public Witches. Her international best-selling memoir Book of Shadows, 5 other books and groundbreaking Witches’ Wisdom Tarot have been published in 14 languages, making her the most widely published Wiccan author in the world. An outspoken advocate in the courts and media, she handled or consulted on groundbreaking cases securing the legal rights of Witches, including cases of child custody, religious assembly, organization, expression, and free speech. Phyllis was named one of The Ten Gutsiest Women of the Year by Jane Magazine and inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Clergy and Scholars. She received the 2018 Service to Humanity Award from the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and the 2020 Person of the Year Award from Kindred Spirit. Phyllis is a Trustee of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, serving as Vice Chair of the 2015 Parliament, and Program Chair for the historic 2021 Parliament blessed by Pope Francis, and the 2023 Parliament with its theme of religious responsibility to resist the growing scourge of fascism. New York Magazine has called her teaching on Witchcraft the culture’s “next big idea” and Time Magazine has published her as one of America’s leading thinkers. Her You-Tube series on Wicca has almost 3 million views. Phyllis is teaching online and working on her next book on the embodied spiritual wisdom of Mother Earth, Nature’s “secret magic” and why the world needs its Witches. Website: https://www.phylliscurott.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phylliscurottInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/phylliscurott/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PhyllisCurottWitchcrafting

The secret of entering the Way of the Wolf, the Way of the Wild, the Way of the Soul; a celebration of the Gospel of Mountains and Wolves; and a path to creating a vitalizing civilization, based on a nonduality of Nature and Culture.

What is the truth that human credulity covers over, and what is the truth that the wild honesty of wolves seeks to reveal?

We consider wolves as a spiritual keystone species. We have considered the horse as a spiritual keystone species, and we can learn a lot from both Wolf and Horse as archetypal currents in the soul. Wolf is part of the mandala of the Dangerous Wisdom curriculum. In light of recent events in Wyoming and more broadly, this contemplation on the spirit of Wolf seems important and overdue. Includes reflections on the books, The Philosopher and the Wolf (by Mark Rowlands), Beyond Words (by Carl Safnia), and the books on the Yellowstone wolves by Rick McIntyre, which start with The Rise of Wolf 8.https://dangerouswisdom.org/

Our best science and philosophy suggest very clearly that we don't know what thinking IS. If large ecologies are mind, what is thinking? If mountains think better than most human beings, how can we learn to think like a mountain?

One of Sophia's owls of wisdom made friends with a delightful and insightful human, the author and ecologist Carl Safina. If you enjoyed My Octopus Teacher, you will love hearing about Carl Safina's fabulous feathered friend, Alfie. Carl's book, Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe, is a wonderful work of philosophy and ecology, and I think you'll enjoy this dialogue as much as I did. It was a great pleasure to speak with him.Carl Safina’s lyrical non-fiction writing explores how humans are changing the living world, and what the changes mean for non-human beings and for us all. His work fuses scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action. His writing has won a MacArthur “genius” prize; Pew, Guggenheim, and National Science Foundation Fellowships; book awards from Lannan, Orion, and the National Academies; and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. He grew up raising pigeons, training hawks and owls, and spending as many days and nights in the woods and on the water as he could. Safina is now the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University and is founding president of the not-for-profit Safina Center. He hosted the PBS series Saving the Ocean, which can be viewed free at PBS.org. His writing appears in The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian, Audubon, Yale e360, and National Geographic, and on the Web at Huffington Post, CNN.com, Medium, and elsewhere. Safina is the author of ten books including the classic Song for the Blue Ocean, as well as New York Times Bestseller, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. His most recent books are, Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace, and Alfie & Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe. He lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife Patricia and their dogs and feathered friends.Find out more at https://www.carlsafina.org/For photos of Alfie:https://www.instagram.com/meetalfietheowl/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551548969047