Portals of Perception Podcast

Welcome to the third conversation in a Portals series that is taking on a life of its own and leading us to deeper, more profound and sometimes surprising insights than we could have expected. 

“Current Openings — What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet” is a new collaboration with David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher and co - founder of Energy Worlds. David joins Aviv Shahar to explore what’s appearing in the “current,” or flow, of new intelligence and evolutionary possibility emerging across humanity and the planet. 

The ease and depth of Aviv and David’s first conversations have the nature of what is sometimes called a promissory grace — an extra measure of energy, inspiration and strength that boost the beginning of a purposeful endeavor. The grace, which some might see as beginners’ luck or a higher blessing, carries the promise of ongoing enhancement in facing whatever challenges may arise on the journey.

In Current Openings we explore ways to reconnect and re - naturalize to the higher intelligence, capabilities and creative power that should naturally flow through human life. It’s relying less on digital technology for solutions to a world in multiple crises, and looking instead to activate our natural inner technology and capacity for true healing, growth and transformation.

Welcome to the second conversation in the new Portals series “Current Openings — What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” It’s a different approach to exploring what’s appearing in the “current,” or flow, of new intelligence and evolutionary possibility washing across humanity and the planet.

David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher and co - founder of Energy Worlds, joins Aviv Shahar in the Current series, this time for a new perspective on natural laws — the universal principles and forces at play in every level o f life on this planet and throughout the cosmos. Natural laws are the invisible infrastructure and core energies that support and influence all human activity and future possibility.

Consider duality: the law of opposites. Positive and negative; inhale and exhale; the planet’s two poles. How do we embody the balance but also rise above it? Move forward while also escaping the pull of polarity. It’s the same with all the laws: finding the harmony and consciousness that will liberate more of our innate capacity.

With awareness of natural laws and their connection to universal processes, we are able to accelerate our personal development and become conscious contributors in the unfolding future of humanity and the planet. This wide - ranging conversation unveils new insights about living in harmony with the natural laws and their effect on human capacity for refinement and personal growth.

One of the most clear and compelling voices across the wide landscape of personal and collective transformation is Dr. Julie Krull, author, mentor, and radio host whose “superpowers” of consciousness and creativity bring new insight to the journey of wholeness and healing.

Julie hosts the weekly radio program and podcast The Dr. Julie Show: All Things Connected. Her book Fractured Grace: How to Create Beauty, Peace, and Healing for Yourself and the World challenges an outdated worldview that has long fostered a sense of separation and fear among people and comm unities.

Julie’s passionate belief in connected consciousness embraces the core understanding that we are not separate from the creative intelligence that designed the universe. The imperative is to embody this conscious integration and co - create a future where humanity and the planet are both enhanced in a mutual destiny.

In this conversation with Aviv Shahar, Julie reflects on the insights and new learnings that have emerged from radio show dialogues with thought leaders and other remark able guests from around the world.

At times it may seem the more troubling features of our collective cultural experience — polarization, conflict, isolation — appear so intractable they are now to be expected as almost normalized behaviors of modern community life. They’re not.

Each one of us has the natural intelligence and creativity to transcend polarities with a greater perspective, transform the energy of conflict into resolution, and live an authentic life true to our self - chosen path, beliefs and values. At any time we can make a conscious decision that can alter our life, relationships and community.

Fortunately, we also have tools and insights available to help explore the practice of what is known as authentic relating and creating deeper human connections. In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by Jason Digges , artist, philosopher, teacher and author of Conflict = Energy. Jason is a global leader of the authentic relating movement.

Aviv and Jason take a closer look at its origins and central ideas, and the many revealing stories in Jason’s personal and professional journeys. Among their insights: Our empowerment comes from our ability to see the context that we're in and make a conscious decision: Do I want to do this? Do I want to play this game?

When we come together and there is friction, we bump up against one another ― there's so much to learn. We need authenticity and courage to lean into it. The foundation of authentic relating is taking multiple perspectives. We have a polarity of dignity, or my voice matters, and humility — listening to others. If either goes offline, we end up in posture or collapse. These are simply tools you can use in every situation — to help you get in touch with yourself and create a space with others. That's why it's called authentic relating.

The first person you need to become authentic with is yourself, or there isn't really any thing else. Capitalism is killing us; we don’t need to abolish capitalism as an economic system, but stop capitalizing on people; stop looking at people as commodities.

Welcome to the first conversation in a new Portals series: “Current Openings — What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher and co - founder of Energy Worlds, joins Aviv Shahar for this adventure. In the case of the title, “current” refers to the flow of energy that is part of the new evolutionary potential washing through humanity and the planet.

In this overture to what is to come, Aviv and David explore the intelligence and universal awareness appearing in this time of profound change - guided by the wisdom and perceptions of three Portals friends: the ‘teric’ sisters — esoteric, mesoteric and exoteric.

The sisters have much to show us as we journey away from an external exoteric worldview grounded in a shifting and chaotic landscape. It’s where personal or collective change can even be viewed as a sign of conspiracy among unseen, unfriendly forces trying to shape our lives. While the elder esoteric sister gently points the way to a larger truth of the innate human connection to the highest levels of universal understanding, and potential for real transformation.

Given the sometimes scary state of world affairs, how can we accelerate the perceptual journey from an unstable external reality to an inner knowing of limitless possibility and wellbeing?

It’s remarkable in a digital age where the world is light years ahead of life in the 18th century that a fundamental cultural institution hasn’t changed its core mission substantially since the Industrial Revolution.

What we know as public education, from pre - school to college, has helpe d elevate life and the collective standard of living in astounding ways over the past 200 years. Its guiding vision has remained virtually unchanged: prepare human beings to, essentially, get a job and earn a living; to become living generators in the powe rful engines that keep the world’s economies humming.

But as the world grapples with environmental and social crises, is it time for public education to again elevate the common good by refocusing its mission and raising its sights to see human possibility as more than just economic assets? Imagine a ‘school’ where a learning ecosystem helps liberate natural intelligence and capacity for creative, regenerative, and sustainable life. A whole - person, whole - planet educational experience that supports the purposes of life and living.

In this Portals conversation, global educators Karol Wilczynska and Orla Kelleher share their vision for the future of education, along with practical steps to help transform the school learning experience into a regenerative force for humanity. 

At Portals we're seeing more and more that emerging and potentially world - changing ideas and perceptions are arising at points all over the planet. In this conversation we speak with Joe Lightfoot , a creative and dynamic thinker, writer (A Collective Blooming) and podcaster who is opening new pathways toward creating communities and grass roots engagement that he believes can radically transform our inner and outer worlds.

Joe describes the Liminal Web, an emerging digital ecosystem that includes the people, platforms and communities pioneering visions that seek deep systems change. In this he traces the impulse for "radical belonging" among millennials seekin g to give rise to new pods and meta - tribes as an alternative to the isolation and loneliness felt in the absence of community in the postmodern, technological age.

Joe re - imagines the big systems – economics, agriculture, politics – that would be par t of a truly regenerative planetary culture. A transition not based in the destruction of the modern world, but rather prepared to harvest the best to nourish an evolutionary process.

There also is a shift in Joe’s thinking to the inner journey of transformation required before a person might be able to engage fully with larger world and systems changes. Join Aviv Shahar and Joe Lightfoot in this expansive and fascinating exploration.

This is a special Portals conversation with a diverse group of practitioners and leaders who bring their insights into consciousness, and their skills in creating transformative change, to top executives, teams and communities around the world.

We’ve asked Anne Stadler, Grace Boda, Kate Sutherland, Royce Holladay, Jeff Vander Clute and Karin Jironet to share their sense of what is emerging and most alive at the moment in their work with a wide variety of individuals and groups. How do they facilitate a personal or collective journey to evolve and transform consciousness? What is the role and power of a community in creating and supporting real transformation? How are each one of us in any moment co - creating our own and humanity’ s future?

 In this wide-ranging exchange we gain new insights into the power of silence and reflection; how to bring our presence to soften boundaries and open the heart; how to live with resilience, and how to make ourselves a conduit for the essential creative force of life to move through us with integrity and purpose.

Modern psychotherapy is finally catching up to the shaman. It’s been a long time coming. The pursuit of mental health and a deeper understanding of the mysterious workings of the human mind can be traced back thousands of years, through cultures around the world. A new approach to treating trauma and mental health issues is finding success by combining the knowledge of modern neuroscience and therapy, with the insights and practices of Indigenous teachers and shamans.

Kim Barta is an internationally known psychotherapist, coach, spiritual guide, and speaker. His groundbreaking techniques in healing serious trauma are based on years of research and experience with treating mental health issues in a variety of cultures and communities. His approach is grounded in the science of neurobiology and memory to help illuminate and heal the "shadows" – the unconscious mental and emotional blockages that prevent our growth and happiness.

By combining the power of symbolism to access the unconscious, as known and demonstrated by indigenous shamans, Kim has seen successful treatment outcomes in far less time than traditional psychotherapies.

In this conversation, Kim considers other mysteries and revelations on the journey to mental wellbeing

If we let our imagination run free, what kind of a future do we see 25 years from now? What does the world look like? Does humanity fulfill the aspirations and dreams that inspire the current generation of searchers and activists striving to create a brighter future? There is a growing network of visionaries active today that is pooling their deep passion and expansive experience with a range of social movements to have that same look into the future. Society 2045 is bringing together the intelligence and inspiration to imagine a compelling future vision and the regenerative pathways that can turn powerful ideas into real transformation. The premise is simple: the planet has reached a tipping point in time where all things we can imagine about the future are possible. Instead of surrendering to the dystopian future vision often offered by science fiction, why not create the kind of positive future we would want for humanity? Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Jose Leal, Kim Wright, and Stewart Levine, members of Society 2045, as they delve deep into today’s topic: Imagine 2045.

It’s tempting to wonder if humanity is really evolving, or devolving. Why does it appear that the expressions of higher intelligence and consciousness among individuals don’t as easily or often emerge in collective or community spaces? Humans seem to do better with the “me” space than the “we” space. Perhaps creating a space where new intelligence and capacity can emerge and transform a collective endeavor – while stimulating the best of the individual – needs a new understanding and insight. In this conversation, leaders of We-Flow describe a unique approach to the “we” space that brings together personal development, collective practices, and conscious business. We-Flow works with companies to transform business cultures into creative ecologies where employees feel free to express the natural inner brilliance in themselves and each other. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Stéphane Segatori, Gertraud Wegst, and Diego Garcia Schober to engage in a rich discussion on today’s topic: The Way We Flow.

Throughout this Portals adventure, we have explored in many ways how to create the inner and outer space that would allow the next phase of universal and human evolution – the future – to appear. It’s time to embrace the bold proposition that evolution has moved forward, and is still doing so, and the future has arrived. Homo sapiens, welcome Homo Universalis, the whole person. The evidence of individual and collective transformation is turning up in many places around the world. Homo Universalis is not meant to be characterized by physical changes but by changed lives and communities; the liberation of remarkable new intelligence, new capabilities, the elevation of thinking and behavior, and healing at many levels. Part of the human species updating represented by Homo Universalis is that each one of us can take steps to activate the new elevation and consciousness in ourselves. This conversation takes a deeper look at some of those steps. Join Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute for Homo Universalis Activates.

We’re talking today with Tucker Walsh, an Emmy Award-winning documentary director and photojournalist who has collaborated with many of the world’s leading thinkers and doers and most iconic brands. As Tucker reached the highest levels of career and personal success, he felt what he describes as an underlying sense of "there's something wrong with me." The happiness and satisfaction he expected with fulfilling his life’s ambitions were missing. Tucker then embarked on a journey of discovery, still ongoing, that led him to the profound realization that even in the darkest of times, he is, and always has been, exactly where he needs to be in a life-long journey of growth and expanding awareness. Tucker describes the practices and beliefs that give him the faith and trust to face any risks and fears with a deep sense of inner guidance and wellbeing in his still unfolding life of transformation. Join Aviv Shahar with Tucker Walsh for Falling Upwards.

For almost as long as Homo Sapiens have been on the planet, humans have sensed and tried to commune with a mysterious presence registered as ‘something higher’ – a power, energy, or intelligence bigger than ourselves. For early humans, it might simply have been fear of the power of nature; over time it evolved into a profound spiritual or religious quest to connect with a universal, divine source of life and change. Part of the heightened spirituality and new consciousness emerging in the past few years is the awareness that ‘something higher’ is not ‘out there’; it’s in here. The human mind, heart and spirit can transcend what previously might have been thought of as an inescapable duality of higher vs lower, of carnal vs spiritual. Join longtime Portals contributor, Jerry Pike, and Aviv Shahar as they explore the inspiration, insights and practices that propel them along the journey to the ‘something higher’ in Entering the Higher.

In this conversation, we take a deeper look at the experience of ‘Searing Moments,’ the profoundly meaningful moments, positive or perhaps traumatic and painful, that may be influencing our behaviors and attitudes, and how we engage with life. Even with Searing Moments from early in life, we can decide and choose how we think about and write the experience into ourselves. We call it ‘the Practice of Searing Moments,’ continually unfolding their meaning to a point where we rewrite and update their significance. Join Aviv Shahar as he and Jeff Vander Clute explore today’s topic, Searing Moments and Their Transformational Power.

In the most recent Co-Creating Humanity’s Future: Foray Three, a group of visionaries and searchers shared a profound new insight, that the natural inspiration and intelligence innate in all humans, our inner genius, is switched on, energized, accessible, and ready to play an active role in creating the way forward. The genius genie is out of the bottle. During this event, through contemplation and active dialogue, these visionary travelers uncover insights and new understandings about the unfolding next phase of evolution.

Co-Creating Humanity’s Future is a big idea and a big premise. Yet, simply by being alive, we are, in a sense, creating the future. This series of Portals’ Virtual Events was an invitation to be conscious, deliberate and purposeful in co-creating the future we want to see for humanity and the planet. In this conversation, we hear a diverse group of multi-generational voices and perspectives, stepping into the face of discovery. What cannot be captured on the podcast is the many faces, and expressions, and joy, and excitement captured in the videos on the website, portalsofperception.org. Join us for Part Two of Co-Creating Humanity’s Future.

We are proposing that, from the beginning of time, when humans first realized that they were humans, we started to imagine the future. And right from the get-go, we discovered that we can plan, anticipate, respond to needs, and do whatever we can do to make the next hour, the next day, a little better. And so, Portals of Perception set out to create a series of events called ‘Co- Creating Humanity’s Future. And so, today we want to introduce a certain question, which is, ‘What holds us back from imagining and creating the future?’ Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Ofer Dotan, Ari Levari, Forrest Wilson, and Fionn Wright to engage in Foray One of Co-Creating Humanity’s Future.

In this episode, we look at the changes that are underway all around the world and examine the idea that these problems require our higher capabilities and talents. If we are to solve very complex problems, we will need to make nonlinear exponential leaps. And to make nonlinear exponential leaps, we will need to individually and collectively engage the unconscious. It is there where the answers, and the solutions, and the innovations for individual, collective, and global problems are latent. Join Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute for Leading from the Unconscious.

There is an ambidextrous quality in the capacity to both be in the here and now and embrace that which is emerging at the edge of our awareness. To be grounded at the moment in what is real is itself a portal into the realms of potential. Our job while we are alive is to translate that potential into action. It can be through new permissions in art and poetry, new discoveries in science, and new frontiers in every other field you choose to explore. For people who are curious, who have a sense of wonder, who want understanding or expression, or some way to connect. We are all coming online for life, to be awakened and transformed and revealed. Every person is a live portal and it is energy that sometimes turns up as poetry. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Libby Wagner and Holly Thomas to dissect today’s topic, The Poetry of Transformation.

This conversation with Forrest Wilson follows a propelling inspiration for the Portals endeavor, which is to encourage the next generation of leaders, people who intuit the deeper change underway and are endeavoring to step into the transformation arena. We explore here ideas for shaping experiences and ecologies where people of diverse backgrounds can collaborate in ways that heal and give birth to real transformation. Along the way we discover aspects of the new operating system that's emerging across the frontiers of science, the arts, business, health and wellbeing, and almost every field of human expression. We are indeed experiencing a new world that's trying to emerge through us as individuals and communities, where perhaps the cause and the calling of this time is to be engaged in this co-creative process. Join Aviv Shahar with Forrest Wilson for A New World Emerging.

In this special Portals conversation, Aviv Shahar speaks with Tim Coats, a former corporate executive who is focusing his unique background and journey on exploring and sharing new pathways into the art of increasing joy, meaning and belonging in our daily life. Tim Coats is the author of the blog, Towards a Life Well-Lived. In this dialogue with Aviv Shahar, Tim reflects on his time since leaving the business world and the importance of deeper connections with life – with people, with nature, and with how he thinks and feels about spirit. Tim traces the evolution of his sense of self-awareness where he learned to see the business world as not only a theater of achieving career goals, but also a laboratory of self-discovery, achieving high levels of success while preserving an inner dialogue about the deeper meaning of it all. Join Aviv and Tim as they explore today’s topic, Toward A Life Well Lived.

In this exchange we are exploring the wide arena of leadership and reaching out to sense its emergent nature in our lives at this time. We sense that leadership is not something out there, but rather it is right here in how we choose to live every day in the various circumstances and roles we operate in. We are not inviting you to a certain method or methodology of leadership, but rather into the bigger inquiry of how we can each, individually and collectively, lead a life of meaning and purpose, a life of learning and development, and growth. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Theodora Papanastasatou, Perry Martin, Jane Goodman, and Liz Halter to share in this conversation on Leadership as an Agency of Assistance and Easement.

We are starting this conversation about art by entering through a side door and exploring the idea of art as a conversation, an evolving conversation. What comes to mind is that there must be several parties involved to have a conversation. Who or what is "art" talking to? What is passing between us? It’s thinking of art as a space where it becomes possible to inspire, to make contact, to create a new connection, to find a new kind of intimacy with life. Join Aviv Shahar as he talks with Aud Wilken and Rita Lampen, two life-long artists, about their love of art, the source of their inspiration, and what is possible through a deeper awareness and appreciation of the true nature of living art.

This is a special conversation with award-winning Israeli author Yair Assulin, we begin to take a deeper look at a major shift underway in humanity and consciousness, which Assulin describes as living in the subjective story we tell ourselves about our reality and the world around us. Big changes and upheavals happening across the globe suggest the story we’re telling ourselves is no longer the right story and doesn’t reflect reality. It’s time for a new story. Join Aviv Shahar and Yair Assulin as they engage in a rich discussion on today’s topic, We Live Inside a Story We Create.

The art of mindful living – being fully present in our minds, hearts and consciousness at any moment – just may be more vital, and more challenging, in a time of rapid and unprecedented change. Yet, how do we build and protect a safe inner space for the new and creative to appear in the face of daily avalanche of digital, family, and cultural impressions all clamoring for our immediate attention. This conversation will explore the practices, behaviors, and perceptions that can support an endeavor to lead a life of intention and purpose, well-being and regeneration in a time of global and universal change. Join Aviv Shahar and his panel of esteemed guests as they explore The Art of Cognizant and Mindful Living.

You are about to enter one of the most nonlinear conversational experiences you've ever entered. In this conversation, we are seeking to discover that intangible property and nature of human life that is the naturally arising capacity to weave part to part and unlock new possibilities. And you will find, as you stay with us through this conversation, that we go to all sorts of places: the past, the distant past, and the future, the interior human realm, the brain, and the mind, and the exterior of the world at large. Join Aviv Shahar and a global group of "weavers," as they continue their discussion on Part 2 of The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part.

You are about to enter one of the most nonlinear conversational experiences you've ever entered. In this conversation, we are seeking to discover that intangible property and nature of human life that is the naturally arising capacity to weave part to part and unlock new possibilities. And you will find, as you stay with us through this conversation, that we go to all sorts of places: the past, the distant past, and the future, the interior human realm, the brain, and the mind, and the exterior of the world at large. Join Aviv Shahar and a global group of "weavers," as they bring together the hidden threads and themes behind new possibilities emerging across all aspects of human experience.

No matter what may be happening in the world, it is always a time of opportunity. Old ways are ending. New possibilities are appearing. And what can emerge in these times we are in seems, in a sense, infinite. In this far-reaching conversation, Aviv invites Jeff Vander Clute to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, how we can ask the right questions, and how we can thrive as we unfold, consciously, into the next chapter. Join us for Thriving Now with Jeff Vander Clute.

In this conversation, we take a closer look at what’s emerging and what’s changing in our experience of a familiar environment – the workplace, or career – however those may be defined in a world still responding to a global pandemic. What quickly arises is the idea that we don’t want to be locked into just the academic or theoretical approach to things, but rather be able to respond in real time to the needs of the moment. And it may just turn out that our ability to be in flow and with the way things are changing has a lot to do with the inner frameworks we rely on to navigate our world. Join us as Aviv Shahar and Ariel Levari explore the struggles of the new workplace in an evolving world, with an eye to finding joy in the processes and challenges therein in Part Two of Sensemaking for Life and Career.

In this conversation, we take a closer look at what’s emerging and what’s changing in our experience of a familiar environment – the workplace, or career – however those may be defined in a world still responding to a global pandemic. What quickly arises is the idea that we don’t want to be locked into just the academic or theoretical approach to things, but rather be able to respond in real time to the needs of the moment. And it may just turn out that our ability to be in flow and with the way things are changing has a lot to do with the inner frameworks we rely on to navigate our world. Join us as Aviv Shahar and Ariel Levari explore the struggles of the new workplace in an evolving world, with an eye to finding joy in the processes and challenges therein in Part One of Sensemaking for Life and Career.

The central propulsion of Portals of Perception is an inquiry about how we humans evolve with our consciousness and perception, and where and how the future emerges. In this conversation, we are seeking to understand and appreciate how the nature of human experience and perception interrelates with technology. In other words, how our natural human capabilities and cognition correspond with and shape and then are influenced by the technologies we build and how these cross-pollinate and influence each other. Some researchers see in the advance of technology unlimited potential; others see a danger in its expanding influence. Join Aviv Shahar and Dr. Alan Litchfield and Wai (Albert) Yeap, two global researchers on the leading edge of technology development, as they explore the evolution of artificial intelligence and its implications for the evolution of humanity.

There is a deep emergent need in humans to access more and to understand more in terms of the spiritual dimensions of life. In this conversation, we explore the nature of what drives us and we look at some of the obstacles that we face when we seek to access the realms of originality and to access original experience, which is central to the story of human life. Join Aviv Shahar as he and Ron Lingard engage in a rich discussion of The Human as Spiritual Resource.

Almost everyone can remember being moved by music. Feeling joy, inspiration, or even healing brought my listening and engaging in music. Different stories and perceptions are in place that could prove the ability of music to move or inspire a listener and that it doesn’t just come from a technical skill or a particular setting, it’s what’s inside the artist and the music itself. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes the musicians, Ed Dowrick and Paul Stone, to unravel the mysteries of Essence Music through their own experience and inspiration.

In Part Two of this episode, the invitation is let’s be daring, in the sense of being prepared to challenge almost any assumptions we have. Because often when we frame inquiries, we already have some working assumptions. So here, what we’re proposing is a simple practice because what we want to do is approach the territory of inquiring into humanity's future whilst we also offer practical briefs, and practical tools, and practices that people can pick up and use. Join Aviv Shahar as he, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Avshalom Zack and Peter Barry continue with Part Two of Inquiries into Humanity’s Future.

What we have tried to demonstrate here is the idea that if you're going to approach an inquiry, if you're going to approach a domain - if you're going to approach anything - a good mindset is not to assume that we may be able to climb Everest just from anywhere. We'd need to get to basecamp, we need to make sure we have with us the right provisions, we need to make sure that we’re fit. In other words, we need to engage in a whole preparatory work to create the scaffolding to embark on a journey. And we are still using the conversation today to substantiate that point, which is that you need to make the journey before you can make the journey. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Kyriaki Nikandrou, Avshalom Zack and Peter Barry to dive deep into these rich inquiries.