The Lens

Tool of the Month - The Black Sun SacrificeDeciding to take action is deciding to sacrifice all the other actions you could have taken. No wonder we don’t take action. Some part of us, a part tasked with protecting us from loss, is trying to prevent us from losing our chance to take ALL the actions. This is a fool’s errand. The Black Sun sends a message to our protectors, “I’m going somewhere with this sacrifice. I’m okay with losing other chances. I’m taking my shot now at shining in this one particular way, and I’m willfully doing so at the expense of all other ways.”Here is how you can send this message, not with words, but with a powerful image:CUE: You’re craving something that blocks your forward motion. Your phone, a substance, junk food, the remote control.RESPONSE: Imagine you’re reaching out to grab it. Just as your hand is closing around it… it disappears. You’ll never be able to partake of that thing ever again.Sit with the feelings of deprivation that come up. See the deprivation as a hole opening in the universe. A dark, endless void. Give it room to grow.Now imagine you’re standing next to this gaping hole in the ground and you’re staring down into it deeply… and finding no bottom. Stare deeper in anticipation of something coming up from the bottom of this hole. And then it appears. A black sun.As the black sun rises up toward you, you begin to feel its warmth coming up through your feet and legs. When the warmth overtakes your body, you now realize that the black sun is rising inside you. Through your belly… into your chest… your heart… your lungs… up into your throat. When the black sun reaches your head, it’s transformed into bright blazing sun beams.Everyone around you sees you shining. Testify!This edition of Testify is an email from a client who has a beautiful take on the Black Sun.I have been really digging into the monthly newsletters that you've been releasing. Around the same time you released your update talking about stand up paddling, I started to surf. It has been an exhilarating and humbling experience to wake up at the ass crack of dawn, only to get barreled by the tides for an hour and a half, while a 12-year old swoops by on a wave. Anyway into the juice- This past month has had a lot of action. I witnessed way too many car accidents in the first week of August, have played shows that made me feel like a rockstar, unleashing a part of me that loves to be on stage and create in the moment. I've dealt with unexpected losses that I am still processing. At the crux of it all, I've re-entered the world of dating, after three years when we had spoken about my last relationship. And boy has it taken me on an adventure internally. This feels like the last dungeon in a Zelda game, where I am busting out all the tools I have acquired from the adventure thus far, from you and the Tools book. It has been feeling like all my wounds are opening, all the expectations that I had from my last relationship are constantly clawing at me to want things that I have worked so hard to realize are unnecessary. Things like, constant validation, constant communication, sex every time we see each other. Most importantly, giving too much of myself expecting the same to be returned.  It had started to really take a toll on me only three weeks in when I woke up in the middle of the night, yearning. I realized- no, I will not hurt the same way I did three years ago. I have plenty of connections that fulfill me, and this time, I'm a working musician damnit. I struggle too often and too long for someone to come and fuck it all up. I made a promise to my shadow that I would put us first this time. We have goals, after all. I use the Tower when I felt the hurt resurface from my last breakup. I look at the void inside of me, endlessly yearning, and let it disappear to watch the Black Sun rise inside of me. And on top of that, while I was made to love, I was first made to walk, I was made to create, and I was made to do so much more than wait by my phone for a text.And so today something really special happened. I was scrolling when I saw that the person I am seeing has a second instagram, of which I wasn't following. I don't know why- it seems like a dumb gen z thing, but it hurt to see that we weren't following each other on what seemed like a more personal, intimate account. I hated that I felt this way. We had only been seeing each other for a month. But that was my cue- my yearning for closeness, my desire to text him to close the space that I intentionally left between us so I could focus on work this week. I used the black sun tool. I felt all of what I described, I closed my eyes. It's always hard to erase something that feels so strong. But I just kept staring, into the darkness behind my eyelids, taking deep breaths, until I could feel the yearning start to dispel. Then there was nothing. I stared for a while. It reminded me of the ocean I stare into when I paddle out past the break. I don't know how long I had been staring, when I felt the black sun rising, it wasn't a sun. It was a grand piano that seemed small on the horizon, but got closer and closer and was massive. Weird. But I felt it grow; grow past my skin and project itself as a bright light outside of my body.Not five minutes later I get a call from my high school chorus teacher, who I had reconnected with earlier this summer, telling me about a potential gig to accompany a high school chorus. This entire summer had been a financial struggle, a lack of gigs, and a whole lot of feeling directionless. And here is an opportunity that seemingly fell into my lap. And after having used the Black Sun tool, I didn't question my abilities like I tend to do. I didn't question myself on whether I'd be able to handle it. I just said, I'm gonna work my ass off to make sure I get this gig. And that's my update! Whether or not I actually get this gig is a mystery, but it gives me hope that my Life Force is well equipped against the Ganondorf of my life that is Part X. Parade of ShadowsWell I’ve written and rewritten this section of my newsletter about nine times in the past three days. I’m having a hard time knowing if it’s cowardice or compassion that stays my pen and stills my tongue. This cognitive dissonance is painful. A strange sort of relief comes from the opiates of instant video, social grafiti, and my imaginary friends in Podcastistan. They all tell me what I want to hear. That my worldview is valid and shared by smart and admirable people. And that feels good for a minute. But now the minutes have become 22 days.So a few days ago I turned on Freedom. It’s the very sort of self-deprivation tool one can employ when inspired by The Black Sun. Now the dispatches from the Culture War front are muted long enough for me to finally sit down and write. And 1,300 shadow-inspired words flowed forth, which were encouraging to me alone. I drafted two songs, and wrote two psychotherapeutic tools you’ll never learn from me. I’ve also discovered and welcomed several shadows, only to decline the opportunity to share them with you here at this time.As an individual, my highest priority is loyalty to my shadow in all his righteousness and wretchedness. But as your therapist, my highest priority is the mysterious and rare rapport I have with so many of you, and our shared quest for the alleviation of despair. It’s a healing we create by finding meaning in our suffering. So this benediction is all that remains for me to share with you.May you taste the delicate sweetness of your own creativity when the aftertaste of high fructose content finally fades.…it might take 22 days.Don’t stop,

August 2025

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June 2025

May 2025

Newsletter for April 2025

March 2025 Newsletter

Another newsletter to my clients

Tool of the month - DEFUSIONTestify! - Christian G.Parade of Shadows - The Dude

Stergios is a Social Worker in Rochester, NY and has contributed hours of compassionate care and laughter to folks at The LENS. As an avid participant in ecstatic Native American rites such as sweat lodge, sundance, and vision quest, Stergios is a constant source of fully embodied wisdom. We spoke today about the tragedy of being an unwanted child, abandonment, healing, and ways Stergios has found his home. What is home? Reach out to Stergios at LinkedIn.Earlier in the show…Denis announced his private psychotherapy practice. The LENS had their Spring 2021 Retreat in June on the shores of Lake Erie near Buffalo, NY. They are planning 3 more retreats between now and September 2022. Your next opportunity to participate is September 2021 (this time on the shores of Lake Ontario near Rochester, NY). After that there will be 2 more retreats near Buffalo on Lake Erie again. For a full schedule of the events planned please contact info@TheLENSPodcast.org. The wonderful setting for my conversation with Stergios is Love In Motion Yoga provided courtesy of Kathleen Engelhardt.

Valdis Abols is the editor of Rigas Laiks Magazine. He served as the Latvian ambassador to Spain for 4 years. Denis met him in 1989 when Valdis, an English teacher at Janis Rosenthal Riga Art School, organized an exchange program with Rita Auerbach, an art teacher at Clarence High School (a suburb of Buffalo, NY).Denis and Valdis talk about Dundaga, Rock Music, The BBC, Voice of America, Glasnost, The Green Movement, Denis’ attempts to spread Christianity with a guitar, Valdis publishing the first Latvian translation of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, the Chautauqua Institute exchange between The Eisenhower Institute and the Friendship Society, the recently opened archives of Checka, mass deportations to Siberia, and the beautifully terrifying film, The Chronicles of Melanie. [See Movie Trailer]

Curtis and Denis had this conversation over a year ago. Before the pandemic. Before the murder of George Floyd. And before the passing of Curtis’ mother, Lorna C. Hill, just two short weeks ago. Even though their time-capsuled conversation lacks an awareness of today’s sorrows, would you say the poignancy of our present day reality is diminished? Or is it amplified?Show NotesDenis and Curtis first met after her performance at Creative Mornings, a monthly gathering of creative people. They talk about why all the superlatives attributed to her mother, Lorna C. Hill, are forever fitting.Curtis talks about “being raised on the stage” in the shining light of Ujima Company, a multi-ethnic and multicultural professional theater company founded by her mother.As a child, Curtis performed in Ujima’s annual mother’s day production, And Bid Him Sing written by her mother. The play is a celebration of the poetry and vision of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and has also been a perennial celebration of Buffalo's great talent in theater, music, and dance.Curtis mentioned performing in the Buffalo Infringement Festival.Curtis’ spoke fondly of her brother Amilcar, also known as DJ Milk, who provides the grooving thump and pump at practically every professional sporting event in Buffalo.Curtis mentioned recording in Bobby Takac’s studio, GCR Audio, in Buffalo, NY.Curtis attended PS 192 Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and is proud of her music and performance apprenticeship with such mentors as George Davis and Frank Scinta.Curtis reminds us that the original Me Too movement was an empowering message of empathy among women of color who were sexually abused. Denis mentioned that he had just recently heard the original history of Me Too from Marxist, Slavoj Žižek.Curtis and Denis discuss what makes it possible for disparate people to maintain their humanity and civility while engaging in challenging discourse.Curtis breaks down her song, Exorcise and remembers the astonishing moment this song brought an audience member to tears.You can follow Curtis’ performances and projects on her website, CurtisLovellMusic.com, and listen to her music on Spotify.

Katie Krawczyk is Chief Executive Officer and Partner at 19 IDEAS, a marketing, PR, and web development company she started with her husband, Dan Gigante. Katie qualifies a genuine Buffalo Boss Babe, but if you ask her (or Denis), she’s simply the boss. Denis and Katie talk about growing up in the eighties, life in the burbs (Katie was born and raised in Hamburg, NY), taking risks, playing the game we need to play vs. playing the game we want to play, and finally… choosing the life we’ve lived. The question arises, just how much of our lives can be considered a choice? Well… how much responsibility can you handle? Katie will inspire you to accept more.Show NotesKaite mentioned that Mamoser’s has highly rated, quintessential Buffalo wings.Denis mentioned co-counseling (or re-evaluation counseling) which encourages people to discharge their pent up emotions (distress patterns) created within each of us through traumatic and harmful encounters.Katie mentioned how, in a addition to therapeutic outlets for releasing rage and grief, she found Krav Maga to be an excellent way to release rage while also connecting. But few interventions have served her better than the good old fashioned punching bag.Denis first met Katie at Larkin Square, a happening place that was built in Denis’ neighborhood shortly after he moved to Buffalo ten years ago.Earlier in the show…Denis talked about the upcoming LENS event, The Entheogenic Experience. If you can’t make it, there are more events coming.

Avi was born in Jerusalem as a wave of hope was cresting. Hope in a peace that had drawn closer than anyone dared to imagine. Hope felt so strongly by Avi’s parents, his middle name is Shalom. Over the next twenty years Avi and his family found themselves in Cleveland, Chicago, Phoenix, New Jersey, Manhattan… and finally… Avi found his own personal Shangri-La… Fredonia, NY, where he attended college, discovered nature amongst the charms of small-town life, and had his first psychedelic experience.Denis and Avi talk about where hope yet lies this quarter century since his birth. Could it be the promising results emerging from psychedelic research? And yet Avi hastens to qualify every statement he makes about psychedelics with attention to honesty and critical thinking. He’s careful to point out the small study samples, and he humbly admits that his own experiences are highly subjective. Details, caveats, conditions, and contingencies are generously supplied. His candor reveals a wider ratio of risk to benefit than one is likely to hear from the growing throng of psychedelic enthusiasts. Denis found Avi’s rational exuberance for inebriants nothing short of… sobering.

Garrett Shea wants to bring poetry to pop. And if a song happens to save a life, that isn’t too shabby either (stay tuned to hear THAT story and song at the end of the episode).As a proud Villa Maria student, Garrett majored in Music Industry. There he connected with Grammy nominated producer Anthony Casuccio who produced Garrett’s first album with the band, Breckenwood. If you listen to their two albums you can not only hear loads of growth in his recording and song craft, but also a shift from pop-punk to just… pop. The pull of pop eventually led Garrett away from the band four years ago. He continues to write and record original songs, while having a blast in his cover band, The Red Letter Kings.Garrett talked about that “switch” that needs to go off in his mind and heart before he is able to release a new song to the public. It took him over a year before he was willing to put his song, Travel On up on Spotify.Garrett is also a music instructor who heads up the music lessons department at Guitar Center in Cheektowaga. They are putting together a Rock Show program where students get focused training for a week in a rock ensemble that makes immediate use of their skills and taste. You can keep up with Garrett’s latest singles, announcements, vlog, and brisk gigging schedule on his web site, GarretSheaMusic.com.Show NotesGarrett mentioned a recent article by Buffalo music critic, Jeff Miers about the music scene in Buffalo. Garrett also mentioned his friend, Tim Britt who he thinks does a great job straddling the line between original and cover band vital to a band’s success in Buffalo. Garrett also mentioned Matt Bannister whom he collaborates with as an acoustic duo. Garrett gave a shout out to his album art designer, Daniel Morris.Earlier in the show, Denis used the tool, Inner Authority by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels to help him bring some authenticity and creative energy to his upcoming job interview.Denis also mentioned that he is starting a therapeutic community in the form of a religion, which you can find out more about in the episode, We are Building a Religion. There is a very special first meeting coming up on Sunday March 31. If you want to take part, please contact Denis at Denis@TheLensPodcast.org.Denis mentioned Dennis McKenna’s book, The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss.Garrett mentioned this fascinating Ted Talk on how lyrics in pop music have gotten measurably more repetitive over the years.

In this Sunday Shit-Show edition of the Lens. Denis invites you to create a reasonable religion with him. What could go wrong?

Dave began his career as a dog trainer with mentor Josh Moran, who Denis interviewed in Episode 3. Dave and Josh have a podcast, Philosophers and Madmen, which focuses on dog-training and world-renowned dog-trainers.Dave and Denis talk loads about BJJ. As they explore Dave’s life journey from childhood it became clear that Dave’s path led not only to dog training, but human training. Eventually they arrive at Dave’s recent strides in self development, and their conversation turned to the role of psychedelics in becoming more whole.Dave talked about Learned Irrelevance, a concept described in the book, Excel-Erated Learning.Dave’s favorite poets are Pablo Neruda and E.E. Cummings, and he shared one of Rupi Kaur’s poems, which raises questions about what traits we ought to praise in one another.Denis mentioned the book, The Secret Chief Revealed, about a psychotherapist who simply provides psychedelic experiences in a safe and supportive set and setting, then helps people integrate these extraordinary trips into one’s ordinary day-to-day living.Denis recounts how he got into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu shortly after reading this Psychology Today article,Earlier in the show…Denis mentioned a book he’s reading, Entheogens and the Future of Religion. How this book, and the dozen or so similarly titled books he’s currently reading will affect his life in 2019 will be revealed in the next episode.Also, Denis earned a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It was once an impossible idea he dared not to believe. But sometimes the impossible is manifested as reality. Denis loves it whens that happens. He suspects that may be the very definition of a life worth living.

In this Sunday Shit Show edition of the The Lens, Denis practices Inner Authority, a tool that helps you get in touch with your shadow so that you can speak to an audience. Do you want to be real? Do you want to be brilliant? Do you believe that gaining the attention of your audience actually matters? This tool will tip the scales in your favor.Also… Denis moved!

Shari Berman’s movie, My Life as Abraham Lincoln, is a journey with a woman desperately trying to unravel the tragic mystery of her own mind. It’s also a joyous love letter to films and film genres Shari most enjoys. Shari also directed Sugar, a rock-and-roll movie about middle-aged women making the most of what could be their last moment to shine (even if it’s only on “MILF-at-Loser-Tube-Dot-Com”!). Denis marveled at the film’s bass-player, June Millington, a kick-ass guitar player from the all-girl band, Fanny.Shari is pulling her next production together, Pink Mist. For starters, it has muslim immigrants, neighborhood bullies, a yiddish ghost and a tween amputee. Denis is looking forward to seeing where this all goes, and how Shari will weave her sense of humor into the tale. Shari is producing Pink Mist with actor/producer Michael Cuomo. She highly recommends Michael’s film, Happy New Year. One of the lead roles will be played by Lynn Cohen, who is also well known for her character Mags, from the Hunger Games. Shari’s husband, Chris Benker will be the director of photography.Shari edited the web series, Switch, a dramatic exploration into the real life experiences of people who work in BDSM dungeons.

Denis attended The Horizons Conference: Perspectives on Psychedelics. There he met with other enthusiastic attendees, most notably Kalindi Iyi, Hamilton Morris, and Roberta Russell. He also got to hear accomplished speakers share their research findings on the therapeutic applications of MDMA to treat PTSD, DMT for treatment-resistant depression, and psilocybin to treat cocaine addiction. Michael Pollan was a highlight. Pollan’s in depth, solemn, and almost ‘mainstream’ treatment of psychedelics in his book, How to Change Your Mind, was the inspiration Denis needed to attend this conference and seek out other therapists who are bringing entheogenic substances to the folks who need them.