In this episode of the Wisdom Keeper podcast I’m delighted to be joined by scholar and Tibetan medical practioner Erik Jampa Anderson who takes us on a magical journey into the realms of synchronicity, mythology, and animism. Eric pulls back the curtain on his upcoming book Unseen Beings where he traces the root cause of the break down of our civilization to the prevalence of anthropocentrism. Are human beings really at the center of it all, seemingly in control of a mechanistic world? Are we suffering the loss of enchantment? While people’s movement across the planet strive for greater equity and inclusivity, Erik makes a bolder leap forward to suggest that our expanding consciousness must begin to include the rights of plants, spirits, and the earth herself. This conversation proposes an inspiring innovation that combines spiritual practice and activism.

Erik Jampa Andersson, founder and director of Shrimala, is a scholar practitioner of Sowa Rigpa, colloquially known as Tibetan Medicine, based in London. He is a graduate of the Shang Shung Institute of Tibetan Medicine, and one of a rare and distinguished members of a small cohort of Westerners who has studied the four classical medical tantras. His first book, Unseen Beings, is due to be released by Hay House publications in Spring 2023. A Buddhist practitioner since 2005 (at the age of 14), Erik found an early home in the Tibetan tradition under the close guidance of Lama Tsultrim Allione, founder of Tara Mandala retreat center in Colorado, and numerous teachers from Tibet and Bhutan. While pursuing a degree in religious studies at Naropa University, he was inspired to change course and enroll in a five-year Tibetan Medicine program at the Shang Shung Institute, in which he was trained extensively under notable senior physicians including Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo, Dr. Namgyal Tsering, Dr. Nyima Tsering, and other Sowa Rigpa experts in America and Asia. His Website is: https://www.shrimala.com/ 

Erik and I discuss: 

• The murder of Erik’s brother that brought on an existential crisis in early childhood 

• How J.R.R. Tolkien opened up a portal into the mythological dimension of life

• The loss, purpose, benefits, and necessity of a mythology perspective

• Magic in Tibetan Buddhism, and his synchronistic encounter with Lama Tsultrim Allione

• Do demons and spirits exist or are they merely psychological archetypes?

• The Tibetan Buddhist ritual practice of Chöd or Feeding Your Demons. 

• The global and personal consequences of our anthropocentric paradigm

• The history and power of animism, and how to relate to unseen beings.

• Working with racism, patriarchy, and anthropocentrisim.

• Global healing through inclusivity with unseen beings including plants, animals, and the spirit world.

• Root cause of the ecological crisis and the possibility of transformation.

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