Anita Sanchez and Raghu Markus confront the impacts of global warming, celebrate indigenous traditions, and explore the deep connection of nature and humanity.

This week, Raghu and Anita Sanchez have a compelling conversation on:

• Anita's recent journey into the Amazon Rainforest
• The intense impact of global warming on Amazonian landscapes
• The strength and leadership of indigenous amazonian women
• Climate change as the biggest threat to national security
• Viewing plants and nature as our relatives
• Asking our ancestors for answers in our dreams
• The way that mother earth cares for us
• Getting rid of the illusion of separateness
• Anita's epiphany at a Sundance ceremony
• Getting involved with protecting our planet
• Reconnecting to sacred, ritualistic ways of being
• Indigenous plant medicine and the potency of Ayahuasca
• Appropriation of indigenous practices
• What the four sacred gifts are

About Anita Sanchez, Ph.D:

Anita was born into a Midwest family that was economically poor, yet rich in Mexican-American and Nahua (also known as Aztec) heritage. Fortified with the strength of her elders and connection to the earth, she became the first in her family of over one hundred first cousins to earn a doctorate degree. She has gone on to a career as an international transformational leader.

Dr. Sanchez is committed to bridging indigenous wisdom and science with or contemporary work and life, to support our individual wholeness and collective conscious evolution in partnership with People, Spirit, and the Earth. With her loving spirit, presence and skill, Anita inspires people around the world to discover and trust their gifts, to become life-giving connections to all, in service and joy.

Learn more about Anita’s work at anita-sanchez.com and check out her own podcast on Be Here Now Network, The Four Sacred Gifts

“80% of the most biodiverse places left on this earth are lands that indigenous people live on. Yet, we’re only 5 or 6 % of the world’s population. That’s not a coincidence, that’s because we have this relationship.”– Anita Sanchez, Ph.D

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Bridging science and spirit, Stephanie Karzon Abrams chats with Raghu about integrating psychedelics and soul into the medical community.

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Stephanie delve into:

• Out-of-body experiences through music
• Addressing identity changes after Traumatic Brain Injuries
• Utilizing plants to promote better health
• Reconnecting to ourselves through psychedelic therapies
• Trauma from displacement and immigration
• Bridging science and spirit by integrating holistic views into medicine
• The mental health impact of physical health issues
• Getting the medical world to want to heal the mind and soul as well as the physical
• The ways that psychedelic experiences can change us
• The importance of having a guide through psychedelic experiences
• Sitting with discomfort and being open to the lessons
• How music expands our minds and creates a space for connection

About Stephanie Karzon Abrams:

Stephanie Karzon Abrams, a neuropharmacologist with a Masters of Science in Clinical Pharmacology, is the founding advisor of Beyond The Bench consultancy. The firm provides science, research, operations, and strategy solutions to organizations and clinics in the natural product, plant medicine, and psychedelic sectors. A recognized leader in shaping the future of integrative and innovative healthcare, Stephanie Karzon Abrams champions the exploration of novel therapeutic approaches. Her interests extend beyond neurology, encompassing plant medicines, women’s health, and the potential of music to enhance healing. Check out Stephanie’s music label, Public Secret.

“Anybody who has any kind of health challenge will have their mental health affected. There is an impact. Just treating that illness or symptom is not enough; you need to heal the mind. You need to heal the soul. They’re all interconnected. There’s no reason why medical science, especially when we talk about psychedelics, can’t address all of that. For me, that’s the ultimate goal, if I can use research as a tool to achieve this then I’ve succeeded.” – Stephanie Karzon Abrams

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Written in the key of grief and the melody of praise, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer sits down with Raghu to discuss her newest poetry book, The Unfolding.

Enjoy your own copy of The Unfolding to read Rosemerry’s heart-opening poems! Purchase the book HERE

This week, tune into Rosemerry and Raghu’s conversation on:

• The loss of Rosemerry’s son and father
• Living through seasons of extreme grief
• Understanding the gift of a poem
• Oppositional feelings experienced at the same time (pain + joy, etc.)
• Recognizing how desperately we need eachother
• The Grand Quilt, The Medicine of Surrender, and more poems written and read by Rosemerry
• Brave prayers and the things that open us / help us grow
• Inspiration from Gregory Orr and Leonard Cohen
• How grief strips us naked and makes us vulnerable
• Raghu sends us off with a beautiful Kabir poem from the book Painting from the Palette of Love

About Rossemerry Trommer:

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is an American poet associated with Colorado. She was Poet Laureate of San Miguel County, Colorado from 2006–2010, and was named Poet Laureate of Colorado’s Western Slope by the Telluride Institute from 2015–2017. Most recently, Rosemerry published The Unfolding, a book of poetry exploring grief. Rosemerry was featured on TEDxTalks to discuss the art of changing metaphors and created an album of poetry called Dark Praise with Steve Law. Check out Rosemerry’s website, Wordwoman, and her daily poetry blog, A Hundred Falling Veils. You can also join Rosemerry in an immersive daily experience of poetry and reflection on the Ritual app.

“So many people reached out to help me… they’d say, ‘What can we do?’ And I’d just say, ‘Open me. Help me stay open. Please, help me stay open.’” – Rosemerry Trommer

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Daniele Bolelli contrasts the beauty of community and selfless leadership in Native culture with the epidemic of loneliness in America.

In this episode, Daniele and Raghu roll through:

• Native American history and lessons
• Daniele’s first exposure to Native culture through his journalist mother
• How the Sundance ceremony shifted Daniele’s entire world
• The purpose of Sundance ceremony and praying for the welfare of all living beings
• The beauty and power of community we can see in Native American culture
• Loneliness in America as an epidemic
• Discussing a few of the great Native American chiefs, like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull
• Thinking collectively for the well-being of an entire village
• Why a functioning community or tribe is essential for collective ideologies to work
• The Native American myth of the Wendigo as a metaphor for insatiable craving

Grab the book Daniele suggests, Black Elk Speaks, for more Native American wisdom and stories.

About Daniele Bolelli:

Daniele Bolelli is an Italian writer, philosopher, and professor of comparative religion. Currently living in Los Angeles, Danielle Bolelli is also a martial artist and podcaster. Learn more about Danielle Bolelli and his published works as well as his suggested reading list on Daniellebolelli.com.

Be sure to subscribe to Danielle’s podcast, History on Fire.

“Loneliness is one of those epidemics that is killing us on a mental health level. When you see functioning communities, it’s a beautiful thing because that sense of relation that exists with this group of people that are not just your nuclear family but extend beyond that.” – Daniele Bolelli

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Sharing inspiration from the monk Thomas Merton, James Finley explains what he has learned about God, healing, and mystical paths.

Grab James Finley’s Memoir, The Healing Path, HERE

This week, James and Raghu have a deep conversation about:

• How James discovered a connection to God through Thomas Merton
• James’ time living in the Abbey of Gethsemani immediately after high school
• The resonance that happens between awakened people
• The secret, safe place that God can commune with us
• Never forgetting what we learn from dark times
• Having empathy for others through our own suffering
• Seeing children as our mentors
• Becoming an act of acceptance for the unexplainable mystery
• The healing stories in the gospels

About James Finley:

James Finley is an author, clinical psychologist, and spiritual director. He is one of the core faculty members of the Center for Action and Contemplation (with Richard Rohr) and is host of the CAC podcast “Turning to the Mystics.” A former novice under Thomas Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani, he is the author of the classic book Merton’s Palace of Nowhere: A Search for God through Awareness of the True Self. A leading figure in the integration of psychology and spiritual direction, he has led workshops and retreats around the country.

“Often, when the terror is overtaking us, it isn’t until later that we reflect on it. We realize it isn’t that it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t just terrible. That precisely because it got so dark I was able to see a light shining in the darkness that had come in looking for me, or it was there all along and I didn’t know it.”– James Finley

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Turning to Celtic wisdom, author and teacher John Philip Newell chats with Raghu about reconnecting to our home, Mother Earth.

Pick up your copy of John’s new book, The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home, HERE.

This week, John and Raghu get into:

• John’s upbringing and being drawn to the natural world
• The Celtic lineage and having awareness for the sacredness of nature
• Knowing that wisdom resides deep within us, not outside of us
• Seeing the universe as an expression of the divine
• What we can learn from native traditions
• A radical new beginning through humility and relation to earth and one another
• Addressing the divine in one another and in every life form
• Breaking cycles of war and repetition
• The contributions of Carl Jung on the collective and individual unconscious
• Merging Eastern and Western traditions

Check out The Marriage of East and West to learn more about the topics John and Raghu reference

About John Philip Newell:

John Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being. In 2016 he began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland. His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books, including his award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His new book, also with HarperOne (and published in the UK by Wild Goose), is The Great Search (August 2024), in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it.

Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path.

Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET

“For me, it was the introduction to Celtic wisdom that awakened me to knowing that wisdom is deep within us and the divine is at the very heart of our beings. We don’t have to somehow invoke or implore a distance presence.” – John Philip Newell

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Connecting the inner world and the outer world, physicist Federico Faggin reveals his work studying the physics of spirituality.

Follow this link to order your copy of Federico's book: Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers and Human Nature

This episode of Mindrolling with Federico and Raghu includes these topics:

• Federico's life growing up in Italy
• Neuroscience and studying consciousness
• How physical feelings come from electrical processes in the brain
• Connecting spirituality and physics
• Considering if a computer could be programmed for consciousness
• Faggin's experience recognizing the inner love that comes out of us
• How quantum physics proves the interconnection within the universe
• Federico's perspective on freewill and determinism in our lives
• Going beyond what science has done
• The limited freedom we have while incarnated
• Predicting our behavior and how our consciousness is watching all
• Grace and the unpredictability of free will
• The divine mystery and why it will never be resolved

About Federico Faggin:

Federico Faggin is an Italian-American physicist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for designing the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. He led the 4004 project and the design group during the first five years of Intel's microprocessor effort. Federico Faggin is one of the greatest luminaries of high technology alive today; his work underlies the modern world's entire information technology. His new book, Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers and Human Nature, was just published in May of 2024.

“I eventually ended up deciding that I was going to spend the rest of my life studying consciousness and trying to connect spirituality and physics. In other worlds, connect the other inner world of experience and meaning with the outer world of symbols and matter in space and time.” – Federico Faggin

Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path.

Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET

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Focusing on curiosity, patience, and self-compassion, Cortland Dahl joins Raghu to go over his new book, A Meditator's Guide to Buddhism.

This week, Cortland and Raghu discuss:

• The mystical practice of making aspirations
• Tuning into ourselves and trusting ourselves
• Learning through our relationships
• Recognizing that the next Buddha is the sangha
• Nurturing sparks of inspiration through practice
• How meeting teachers helps us realize our own inner depth
• Why curiosity can move us along the spiritual path
• Patience, creating space, and being vs. doing
• Self-compassion in a world of chaos and uncertainty
• Discomfort as a zone of growth
• Expanding our motivations for doing our practice
• Seeing the awakened nature in everyone and everything

Pick up a copy of A Meditator's Guide to Buddhism HERE

About Cortland Dahl:

Cortland Dahl is a Buddhist scholar and translator, author, meditation teacher, and a collaborator on various scientific studies. After receiving a Master’s Degree in Buddhist Studies, he lived for eight years in India and Nepal, where he spent long periods in solitary retreat in the Himalayan foothills and taught courses on Buddhism, meditation, and Tibetan language at Kathmandu University’s Center for Buddhist Studies and at the Tergar Institute, which he co-founded in 2007. He went on to study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was mentored by the renowned neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson and received a Ph.D. in Mind, Brain, and Contemplative Science, the first ever degree of its kind awarded by the university. Cortland's current work focuses on studying the psychological and neural mechanisms of different families of meditation practice. He is also the creator of the Healthy Minds program, a well-being training program that integrates insights from scientific research with a comprehensive path of contemplative training. Keep up with Cortland HERE or check out his books HERE.

“We have no clue of this depth and richness that is inside of us. How we stumble through life completely oblivious to these amazing qualities of mind and somehow we just haven’t learned to see it. Then, you meet a teacher and it gets cracked open a little bit and you start getting a glimpse just by being in their orbit.” – Cortland Dahl

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