Portals of Perception Podcast
Portals of Perception endeavors to create conversations at the frontier of discovery, and to bring to life the natural processes of human development. Each of us, by design, can become a living agency for the evolutionary process, as it arises, through our living expression, and can become an intentional participant in the emergence of a wiser future.
Join our hosts Aviv Shahar and Peter Barry every week for conversations on a wide variety of topics including human purpose, personal development, evolution and the future. The podcast is the perfect way to enjoy these conversations in a full-length format.
MOST RECENT EPISODES
March 28th, 2025
EPISODE: 097 Normalizing the Extraordinary - In the Metamodern God Lab
A laboratory is where we’d expect to find a safe space of discovery and purpose; an environment that supports experimenting with diverse ideas and mysteries in the search for truth. Add in an atmosphere of mutual trust and acceptance, and now we’ve created an ecology that invites something even deeper — a God lab.
Imagine a God lab as an intensified spiritual retreat, a gathering of like-minded and like-souled individuals seeking new understanding and experience with the divine. In this conversation, we are invited to appreciate a metamodern God lab as a community, created through the shared exploration of the sacred by people who each represent a unique expression of universal possibility.
In a metamodern God lab, every person is recognized and accepted as they experiment with creating and evolving their own vision, practices and art; an ecology where people find the inner balance that allows them to embody more fully at the spiritual leading edge of themselves.
We get to explore in this conversation the nature and possibilities of emergent metamodern spirituality with two metamodern leaders, Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey. (This is the latest in a series of conversations sensing deeper into metamodern spirituality.) Layman and Brendan discuss with Aviv Shahar the recently completed Metamodern God Lab at the Sky Meadow retreat in Vermont.
This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
March 14th, 2025
EPISODE: 096 Current Openings #16 - The Octave Leap Mystery
How many of us remember having what some people call a “chrysalis” moment? An octave leap, with mind-opening perceptions, in real time. A powerful flow of energy, a quickening, triggered by a connection or breakthrough that can happen anywhere, at any time, and transform us and the circumstance we’re in.
The chrysalis we probably know as the middle stage of the three-step transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. It’s a beautiful example of growth and change that happens in stages, or gradations, and is often generally described as a change in octaves, or levels. An octave change can be a long journey of refinement, or it can feel like a quantum leap, in an instant.
Why an octave in the first place? What is the benefit of an ordered transition or progression from one state to another? For example, from the physical and dense to the energetic and spiritual? The universe likes octaves; it’s the engineering that facilitates change and innovation; a natural technology that enables the safe entry and movement through successively higher energetic states.
How does it work? Can we really “leap” from a lower octave to a higher one? We turn for insights to Aviv Shahar and collaborator David Price Francis. Their conversation is the latest in the “Current Openings” series.
This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
February 28th, 2025
EPISODE: 095 The Universalis Project #9 - Deepening in Evolutionary Mysteries
If we’re already diving deep into the core mysteries of the human experience — such as how to partner with a new wave of evolution and engage with the universe — how do we push even further on the edge of discovery? Can we go even deeper into the mysteries? What’s the real benefit?
A curious feature of engaging with the natural human impulse to grow and refine is that as we develop, we begin to activate amazing innate capacities for connecting to intelligence and influence that are universal in origin and source. This, in turn, enables even deeper diving and connection to the mysteries of life and our evolving future. We explore the activation of the universal human in the Portals series the Homo Universalis Project.
By deepening in our intention and pursuit of meaning in a chaotic time, we build stability and a stronger foundation, expand inner space, and birth new sensitivities and capacities. In doing so, we become an antidote for a superficial world consumed by multiple global crises. We discover more about the nature of the inner space in The Ghost and the Inner Conclave and The Guru Trap and the Golden Shadow conversations with Jeff Vander Clute.
We also deepen to become available for an even bigger mission, bigger task, in our service to the new pulse of evolutionary possibility washing over humanity and the planet. Not a bad reason to dive in and deepen in the cosmic mysteries unfolding all around us. But how do we deepen?
We explore more deeply the why’s and how’s of deepening in the newest chapter of the Homo Universalis conversations (recorded in September 2023) with Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney, and Kyriaki Nikandrou.
February 14th, 2025
EPISODE: 094 Evolving Together #4 - The Human Radio Set
It may be time to finally change channels, or — if we really want better reception and perception — to trade in that old analogue transmitter and receiver for the best, state-of-the-art technology in the universe.
We are referring, by analogy, to the most advanced radio set ever created: the human mind and network of finer, higher faculties — capable of tuning into any frequency, from humanmade, to planetary, to the deepest reaches of the cosmos. Its potential is vast and vital to our ongoing evolution and future.
Much of our precious daily life is likely spent inside a narrow band of energy, often worrying about relationships, career or cultural and ecological crises. With awareness and training, it’s possible to tune sensitive inner technology to transmit and receive on universal frequencies natural to the human design. It’s activating a higher human operating system.
It’s also a development journey enhanced and quickened by our companions and communities. Mutual respect and trust can help heal pain and trauma, as we become the signal that enables the emergence of new possibility in one another, evolving together.
We explore the realms of mutual transformation and the amazing human radio set in the latest of our Portals series Evolving Together, with Aviv Shahar and longtime Portals friends Nigel Geeves and Well.
January 31st, 2025
EPISODE: 093 Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 3 - Symphonic Seven-fold Soul Work
In chapter 2 we described the nature of separation events and the compensatory act of the soul — the ghost. Before developing ways to recover the sense of connection and explore pathways to reengage and liberate the greater potential of the soul, this chapter begins to reflect on a whole loom of considerations, including the experience of showing up in a human model, which is governed by a seven-fold process.
This is the first in a series of installments that will be seeking to place this soul odyssey inside the context of this moment in the unfolding epoch transition. It will open the way to prod the soul’s interface with the full orchestra of inner lives of a human, including in a later installment the brain and the mind.
January 17th, 2025
EPISODE: 092 Inner Conclave Consciousness
How can we access greater intelligence, wisdom, and power to face the often-scary challenges of these times?
In the Inner Conclave Consciousness, Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute develop further the three process octaves they began to explore in part one of this conversation.
Why is this exploration so relevant now?.
Portals is chronicling what we describe as the unfolding crash of the operating system underlying much of the modern era. It doesn’t make our journey any easier; whenever we step into a new space of development and learning we cross the frontiers of resistance — all levels: physical, mental, emotional.
The Inner Conclave is a process to disarm resistance. It offers ways to help liberate the perception and awareness that add meaning and understanding in times of change. We can each work into this modality on our own and also in small pods, where we help each other activate the multiplicity of voices inside.
In this conversation Aviv and Jeff explore the vast, inexhaustible and versatile resource of the Inner Conclave and its second and third octaves of process, and dive deeper into the exploration of the Epoch Journey.
January 3rd, 2025
EPISODE: 091 Activating the Inner Conclave
A glance at the headlines today often brings a deep sense of sadness about the escalating violence in many parts of the world, along with an urgent inner inquiry: what can one person do to promote peace, both within themselves and the global community?
Several Portals conversations and, most recently, the first chapters of Portals Into the Soul, offered the insight that every human is born with natural qualities and higher connections that form a powerful inner source of intelligence and capabilities. This Inner Conclave of our many inner lives is a ready resource to assist in any dimension of our planetary experience. Even, and maybe especially, in the quest for peace.
The Inner Conclave is not just an exercise in visualization. It is the energetic content and consciousness that can illuminate and transform our lives. The Conclave’s three levels, or octaves, of process include releasing and healing, learning and developing, and higher communion.
Engaging with the Inner Conclave can update and rewire our internal operating system and expand its capacity to welcome new qualities and natures, including deep well-being and peace. Imagine that we are integrated with every other human through our higher universal nature. Imagine then that creating our own inner peace can heal and transform the energetic networks and communities that connect us all.
Let’s take a deeper look at the amazing capabilities of the Inner Conclave in this newest conversation between Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute. Jeff is a consultant and author of three recent books, including Beyond Every Teaching, a collection of transformative spiritual transmissions.
December 20th, 2024
EPISODE: 090 Current Openings #15 - The Four Development Zones
It may be easy to see the wisdom of Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who noted back in the 6th century BC, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." When the journey of a lifetime is measured not in distance, but in sensing and connecting with a universal source of purpose and potency, what is that single first step?
We’ve explored throughout Current Openings the many facets and dimensions of the human development quest and challenge. From personal — transforming me — to the collective of together evolving ourselves through our relationships and communities, which in turn uplifts and transforms our world and humanity. All guided by the search for truth in a time of evolutionary change and new possibilities.
So, the first step? We know from our Portals journey that the human is the only species on the planet with freedom of choice — the power to focus the full energy and creativity inherent in the human design in pursuit of an intention. Make a decision, and it starts to build the potency of one person being able to say, “I choose to do this.”
We learn a lot more about the zones of human development in the new episode, #15, of Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet, with Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis.
December 6th, 2024
EPISODE: 089 Universalis #8 - Partnering with the Universe
Our long and revealing journey of discovery with homo universalis, the universal human, has taken us to what feels like a new beginning, but now as partners; a partnership that will transform both of us in the ongoing adventure of an unfolding new epoch and new future.
This partnership with the cosmos actually begins inside of us, with ourselves. We are becoming more intentional partners with the many inner lives of connections, capacities and expansive intelligence natural to every human. We know from previous Universalis conversations that new sense organs and deeper awareness of our universal nature also are firing and coming online.
Imagining a connected exchange with the universe as a partnership makes it easier to also think about our inner partners as an integrated, enhanced platform of new possibility. Which brings us to the conundrum we always face in wanting to integrate, consolidate and make our own these emerging new capacities.
How do we internally welcome newly arising intelligence and awareness in a way that promotes their ongoing liberation instead of fixing or arresting our emerging universal nature? It’s really up to us. Are we ready to embrace the responsibility (and opportunity) to be self-authoring, self-electing, and self-configuring as we integrate with our universal partners?
Many amazing ponders and mysteries to explore. Which we do in this latest Homo Universalis conversation with Aviv Shahar and Portals friends Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou.
November 22nd, 2024
EPISODE: 088 The Teacher's Journey with Sarah McCrum
The journey of a spiritual teacher can help illuminate the joy, pain, revelations and profound awakenings that often accompany someone on the path to discover the larger meaning of life and the universe.
This conversation brings us an intimate look into one such life of spiritual learning and leading, as Aviv Shahar is joined by author, educator, innovator and business owner Sarah McCrum. It also inaugurates a new Portals series that will explore the unique developmental journey of spiritual teachers and leaders from a variety of disciplines.
Sarah’s path of searching and teaching stretches from the high — experiencing the “source code” or creational origins of the well of being, or wellbeing — to the awareness of the energy of money as being an integral part of our wellbeing and spiritual purpose.
Sarah reflects on the many lessons and insights from her years of studying directly with spiritual teachers from several disciplines and communities — the deep healing, revelations, and challenges inherent in the student-teacher relationship. Her experience reflects aspects of the Portals exploration into the Teacher’s Journey.
The story continues as Sarah describes the feeling of freedom, of being both an individual, and connected to the divine nature that emanates from the core of the universe.
November 8th, 2024
EPISODE: 087 Current Openings #14: What Does it Mean to Develop?
It was a Portals cliffhanger: We were in midflight, in midair, final destination unseen, at the end of the last Current Openings as we journeyed into the deeper space of development and what it means for us and the universe. The conversation then paused, to pick up later.
No need to worry. Our flight now resumes, as we aim even deeper into the core dimensions of what it means to be a true caregiver for ourselves, the planet, the cosmos, and future generations yet to come. The dimensions of care and love that determine our future with the choices and decisions we make every day.
A good place to start might be to notice the word “care” can be found in caregiver and character. What sort of character builds the inner platform that offers a good home to the new evolutionary energy now finding its way into humanity and the planet? How do our values, principles and morals enable us to connect with the source of what powers us on the inside, in whatever we are aiming to do?
As our “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet” flight continues, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore further into the five core dimensions of what it means to develop.
October 25th, 2024
EPISODE: 086 Journeying to Source
It remains one of the most powerful and personal callings for someone on a quest for transformation and inspiration: the pilgrimage — a journey to what are believed to be sources of connection to the sacred or divine, the holy places.
Many of the best-known religious pilgrimages involve a million or more believers or devotees, such as the Hajj, or sacred Hindu celebrations in India. A pilgrimage can be required by religious law, or begin with a singular calling, an inner urge, felt by the pilgrim for closer communion with the divine, however the spiritual or universal source is named or described.
Why do people all over the planet from nearly every tradition take up these sometimes arduous adventures of spiritual devotion? What do they hope for?
In this conversation we hear from two longtime Portals friends who recently completed what some people might call the pilgrimage of a lifetime, to the source high in the Himalayas of the sacred Ganges River, in Hindu belief the home of the Goddess Ganga. Jeff Vander Clute, consultant and author, and Grace Boda, teacher, consultant and executive coach, share with Aviv Shahar the feelings and power of their pilgrimage to this divine source.
October 11th, 2024
EPISODE: 085 The Time Between Worlds with Layman Pascal
How do we reckon with a reckoning? We can look around at the many crises engulfing the planet and think that, yes, humanity is facing its day of reckoning, a time of consequences for many forms of unsustainable behavior throughout the modern era. The “twilight of the gods,” or unraveling of our inherited values and reality described in mythology and literature.
Can we find a path forward from reckoning to renewal? In a post-guru era, the search for new intelligence and insight doesn’t rely on any single external authority. We are inspired by gifted teachers, shamans, and enlightened companions, but this also is a time of distributed leadership.
Each one of us has the natural capacity to connect with a universal source of knowledge and creativity — homo universalis. Each one of us carries a piece of the puzzle that together form a clear image of a collective new future. Doesn’t it make sense to then together reckon new ways of creating community that liberate the best each has to offer?
We are fortunate to again have a gifted guide as we navigate our way through this shape-shifting new reality. This is the third conversation between Aviv Shahar and Layman Pascal, a leader in Integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast.
September 27th, 2024
EPISODE: 084 Current Openings #13 - How Can We Help the Future?
How would we even consider paying back the universe — returning the favor — for the most amazing gift of being alive? In a simple appreciation, every breath, every heartbeat, demonstrates a greater permission, an ongoing love and care for the human species. Isn’t it reasonable to wonder how we might reciprocate?
Fortunately, there are many clues and directions in Current Openings that explore the true nature and innate possibility of being human. Much of the discovery has broadened our understanding of a larger purpose in the cosmos and what it means to actually develop.
We’ve learned, for example, that by design we generate and process energy at many levels, frequencies and qualities. We can choose to create and transmit into our lives and the world generosity, care, kindness and peace — qualities that enrich and uplift life itself — instead of being pulled into ever-more-toxic political and cultural polarities.
The activation of Homo Universalis, a greater universal possibility, means each of us can choose to become a conduit, a safe harbor, for new evolutionary potential nudging its way into humanity and the planet. We help ourselves (and each other) by helping the future help us. Not a bad first cosmic “thank you.”
As we continue the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet,” Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis further explore the human impulse to reciprocate the cosmic love that keeps our hearts ticking.
September 13th, 2024
EPISODE: 083 Portals Into the Souls, Chapter 2 - The Ghost
In chapter one we introduced the story of the soul showing up as part of a new life on the natural as was meant to be line. It is programmed with a threefold brief to orchestrate and guide the human to a) stay alive, b) learn, adapt, and improve opportunities, and c) discover and realize your higher purpose. The soul nudges you to bring to life and express the cosmology of your natural higher qualities.
In chapter two we ask why and how we get separated from the natural as was meant to be line, and what happens to the soul when we do. How does the soul fixate on and try to compensate for the separation? We will also address the postmodern self-construction criticism of what we describe by the natural as was meant to be response of the soul. We put individuals to work in things that do not serve life, and they hate their work. The people who were meant to move life forward are being hijacked by the systems, and we create the crisis we have today.
This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
August 30th, 2024
EPISODE: 082 8 Patterns of Transformation with Jose Leal
What if the underlying natural intelligence and energy that help influence and shape nearly every aspect of our lives were actually identifiable patterns hiding in plain sight — visible in every domain of life to anyone with the eyes (perception) to see?
Underlying patterns that together point to a unified universal operating system or source code that is guiding the growth and evolution of our own life, humanity and the planet…and all the ways we connect and interact. Identifying the patterns can open greater possibility of living and working in harmony with, not contrary to, the rhythms of nature and life.
Making space and time for the dynamic flow of life itself can transform a society and culture — all that we do, in the workplace, legal system, relationships and communities. How so?
We explore the guiding influence of usually unseen patterns and cycles in this conversation between Aviv Shahar and Jose Leal, a founding member of Society 2045, a gathering of visionaries imagining a future that supports and liberates the best of humanity. They first looked into their evolutionary crystal ball in the Portals conversation Imagine 2045.
August 16th, 2024
EPISODE: 081 What is Healing? #3 - Opening to Healing
How do we sidestep a familiar and unhelpful pattern of thought or behavior in that moment when trauma or pain begins to assert itself and trigger a response? Can we in the triggering moment find a uniquely creative and new response that helps illuminate and loosen the trauma’s grip?
Learning to pause before reacting to a triggering feeling or memory might be one of the most important moments in the healing process. Deciding how we will respond, if at all, engages a larger awareness or consciousness that lifts our perspective above the immediate, often polarized, circumstance. In this view of healing, consciousness is the medicine.
In this moment we can remember there is no separation: we are naturally integrated with larger universal patterns of regenerative energy and intelligence. Which means as we heal, the universe heals, and we co-create a new future.
We explore further into the realms of light and shadow and healing with a group of Portals friends who bring an amazing depth and breadth of experience as practitioners, authors, and teachers. In this new addition to the What is Healing? series, Aviv Shahar is joined by Lonny Jarrett, AlexanderLove, Randine Anderson Lewis, and Lorie EveDechar.
August 2nd, 2024
EPISODE: 080 The Guru Trap and the Golden Shadow
It’s good to remember that whatever the emotional, mental, or life pain or trauma we face — whatever the shadow or ghost — we can at any time assemble the most powerful team of advisors, healers, teachers, and friends available to help us. It can be anyone, close by or at distance; a quality, such as courage or kindness. Whatever we think we need.
They all come together in what we call the Inner Conclave, a multi-dimensional interior gathering of the many lives and resources accessible within us. If we face the trauma caused by abuse or loss, for example, we can imagine in our Conclave a person or quality that represents love, or trust, or wisdom.
It’s not merely a mental picture, but the energetic value and consciousness that work together to illuminate and in time transform the shadow or ghost, the pain and anguish. Where do our ghosts come from? Imagine an inner intelligence we call a soul that seeks always to keep us safe, and reconnect us to the natural love and wonder in us at birth.
We discover much more about the ghost and shadow, and the healing possibility of the Inner Conclave practice, in this conversation with Aviv Shahar and longtime Portals friend Jeff Vander Clute. Jeff is a consultant and author of three recent books, including Beyond Every Teaching, a collection of transformative spiritual transmissions.
July 19th, 2024
EPISODE: 079 The Ghost and the Inner Conclave
It’s good to remember that whatever the emotional, mental, or life pain or trauma we face — whatever the shadow or ghost — we can at any time assemble the most powerful team of advisors, healers, teachers, and friends available to help us. It can be anyone, close by or at distance; a quality, such as courage or kindness. Whatever we think we need.
They all come together in what we call The Inner Conclave, a multi-dimensional interior gathering of the many lives and resources accessible within us. If we face the trauma caused by abuse or loss, for example, we can imagine in our Conclave a person or quality that represents love, or trust, or wisdom.
It’s not merely a mental picture, but the energetic value and consciousness that work together to illuminate and in time transform the shadow or ghost, the pain and anguish. Where do our ghosts come from? Imagine an inner intelligence we call a soul that seeks always to keep us safe, and reconnect us to the natural love and wonder in us at birth.
We discover much more about the ghost and shadow, and the healing possibility of The Inner Conclave practice, in this conversation with Aviv Shahar and longtime Portals friend Jeff Vander Clute. Jeff is a consultant and author of three recent books, including Beyond Every Teaching, a collection of transformative spiritual transmissions.
July 5th, 2024
EPISODE: 078 Evolving Together #3 - Choosing Our Families
How often do we feel the people closest to us emotionally or energetically — though not related by blood or marriage — are actually our real family? We all know the saying “You can’t choose your family,” usually meant humorously when a relative does something we find embarrassing. What if we can choose our family, in all the ways that have consequence, meaning and value for our lives?
We’re not referring to bloodline or DNA. It’s the special relationships — family formed from the bonds, exchange, and shared space of new possibility created when people come together in mutual purpose and vision. How does it happen? It begins with the very real connections among all humans.
We are singular and individual, but also born with minds, systems, and highly sensitive faculties that can naturally tune into and connect with the frequencies of our fellow humans. Not only link with one another, but exchange and transfer. Which means my learning and inspiration can become your learning and inspiration; a real shared consciousness.
It gets bigger. The same inner technology that connects us with each other also integrates with much larger universal systems and intelligence, allowing the flow of evolutionary energy to feel its way into humanity. Evolving together, us and the universe. Quite a family.
This conversation continues our discovery of family and growing together begun in earlier dialogues among Aviv Shahar and Portals friends Nigel Geeves and Well.
June 21st, 2024
EPISODE: 077 Current Openings #12 - Why Develop Yourself?
We might want to stop and consider if a slightly different approach could help us unlock the core question this conversation is posing: Why develop yourself? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to wonder that since we will develop, one way or another, why not choose with intention and awareness what will fill our lives and help shape our future?
The human is designed to develop. We know from earlier Current Openings, such as The Addiction Trap, that the open-ended potential of the brain and mind can be programmed by high-intensity, repetitive impressions and activity. Toxic or healthy; healing or harming: the choice is ours. There is no inner void.
We can consciously direct our natural creative potential to the process of converting physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual energy into real impacts and results in our inner and outer worlds. Actually shaping our personal and planetary ecology, and the new universal possibility now emerging.
The more finely we develop, the greater our inner conductivity and effectiveness in the life we choose. Maybe a beginning answer to our core question.
Of course, there are many paths and possibilities to discover. In the latest edition of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore why human development shouldn’t be left to chance.
June 7th, 2024
EPISODE: 076 Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 1: The Soul - A Threefold Orchestration
Building on the context offered in thePreamble, this is the first in a series of Portals Into the Soul chapters we are publishing in a draft form. This work was seeded by the conversation The Ghost and The Inner Conclaveand, as the preamble narrates, by four decades of intense inquiry.
Portals into the Soul will reflect on the core story of life from the perspective of the soul. It will:
- Describe the threefold configuration of the soul
- Codify the psychology the soul develops as a byproduct of one’s experience expressed in the compensatory act we call the ghost
- Explore soul pathways into the brain and the mind
- Sketch The Inner Conclave process and its three levels of application in healing, development and connecting communion
- Reflect on the ensoulment process and the birthing of a higher soul
- Describe this epochal transition moment as a context for our voyage to rediscover the soul
Let us begin this trace by appreciating what the soul is, what it does, and its threefold nature.
May 24th, 2024
EPISODE: 075 Portals Into the Soul - Preamble
What Portals Into the Soul will bring to life is not an invention of a new “theory” or “model.” The traces formulated here will offer actual pathways you can travel and test for yourself. Please do not take anything I write as a given before you validate these actualities in your own experience.
My own discovery laboratory has been inspired by and is sourced in the deep universal truth of what the case for human life is, in the best ways I have been able to contact these great mysteries through more than four decades of intense development inquiry.
The language formulation used in these Portals Into the Soul can be appreciated through a process like painting, where the painter comes back again and again to the same regions of the picture, to add new layers upon the earlier layers, so the picture gains depth, distinction, and significance.
We approach this work as an on the move discovery process, and are serializing these chapters digitally in draft form as they emerge. The intention is to clarify, refine, and update the writings as the perception itself becomes clearer.
May 10th, 2024
EPISODE: 074 What is Healing? #2 - A New Togethering
Sometimes it takes courage to heal. It’s usually easy to see, feel, and know the pain and trauma from our own lives, our communities, and the cultural upheavals upending many parts of our world. Being able to perceive and register hurt or isolation and loneliness doesn’t necessarily make the path to healing and wholeness any more visible, or smooth.
How do we find and feel the inner strength to take the first step? One of the paths to healing and transformation begins in the special ecology or space that is created between people who share respect and value for what each life represents. It can be a simple conversation that brings a feeling of safety and trust — a special warmth that begins to melt whatever may be blocking us from connecting with who we really are and can be.
A real mutuality not only dissolves the barriers between us, but also enables a shared support and elevation that can reveal the path to deeper emotional and mental healing. In the process, reconnecting us to a natural inner courage and resiliency that carries us forward.
In this conversation, we explore further into the healing possibility enabled by a real human mutuality. Aviv Shahar is joined again by Alexander Love, acupuncturist, life coach, and cranial-sacral therapist, who took part in this conversation on approaches to healing. They are joined this time by Veronica Olalla Love, ontological coaching professional and CEO of the Newfield Network.
April 26th, 2024
EPISODE: 073 Evolving Together #2 - What Holds Us Back?
Be honest: When we see a friend or colleague achieve a personal breakthrough — barrier overcome; milestone reached; the best of themselves coming forward — do we fully feel the value and joy of their success? Not even a tinge of jealousy, or wish that it had been us instead?
What if we embrace a very different view of each other’s accomplishments and potential? When we acknowledge and appreciate the struggles and progress in someone else, we actually create space in ourselves for the same success. We grow in ourselves by watching others grow; we liberate a greater possibility that is only accessible when we come together as “we,” beyond the ego of “me.”
What’s holding us back? Many of the outcomes of modern life: separation, fear, and trauma, which create an emotional and mental scar tissue that prevents us from trusting and accepting each other. Our natural human sensitivity is numbed, inhibiting the fountain of warmth, kindness, and generosity that is our birthright.
Fortunately, we also have higher faculties and systems, still connected to our natural intelligence and creativity, that enable growth, development, and integration with an emerging new evolutionary potential.
We explore the barriers preventing a greater human mutuality, and the seeds of our healing and integration, in part two of the conversation Evolving Together, with Aviv Shahar and two Portals' friends and life-long spiritual seekers, Nigel Geeves and Well. In part one, the three opened the question, Why evolve together?
April 12th, 2024
EPISODE: 072 Current Openings #11 - The Application Conundrum
Where can the human Big Bang be found? It is: You become what you apply yourself to. It’s not just a different angle on the familiar phrase of becoming what we think about; it goes much deeper.
Application happens when we bring intention and purpose to focus our energy, knowledge and passion to achieve what we most value in life; to turn learning into action; to transform our physical, earthly reality and shape our universal future as it shapes us.
Great. But how? Applying ourselves with intention to transform our lives means unifying the action of our head, heart and hands in a self-chosen direction. In other words, we need to know what we want. It’s the first step in creating an ecology where higher intelligence and connections can find us and help our development.
In deciding how and where to begin, help is already available. This conversation marks the start of a new series in the Portals feature “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis are leading into “The Human Development Challenge,” which builds upon the many insights, knowledge and practices in the first ten Current Openings.
The Challenge will take us deeper into the esoteric knowledge at the heart of our universal nature and possibility, such as with the conundrum of applying our learning in a way that supports our evolutionary journey.
March 29th, 2024
EPISODE: 071 A Conversation with Layman Pascal, Part 2 - Pursuing Integral Wisdom
We’re living in a time where increasingly we see what’s happening in the world around us and have to wonder how, or even if, we can find deep truth in the age of the “deep fake”. Artificial intelligence can distort or manipulate many forms of data and information we take in through our physical senses. Sights, sounds and “facts” on a page can all be faked. How then do we with confidence make sense and meaning in a life when even what we see with our own eyes may not be true?
There are clues in the name itself: “artificial” intelligence. What about natural intelligence? We know from Portals conversations that the human is designed with the capability to connect with larger, universal sources of intelligence, creativity and inspiration, beyond the reach of even the most powerful AI.
It’s a deep truth explored throughout history by spiritual teachers, shamans and wise men and women attuned to the finer, energetic, subtle realms as a living reality. Sources of profound revelation and learning that can transform lives and communities, and reconnect the human to its natural birthright.
In this conversation we are once again fortunate to have as our guide Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast. He joins Aviv Shahar for part two of their conversation, begun with Protecting the Sacred.
March 15th, 2024
EPISODE: 070 A Conversation with Layman Pascal, Part 1 - Protecting the Sacred
At a time when cultural and existential crises threaten the wellbeing of our global community, shouldn’t the search for wisdom and a more enlightened path forward embrace all sources of insight and new intelligence? Twenty-first century technology, side by side with ancient and sacred traditions? The intuitive, and the scientific?
There is growing awareness that real transformation, personal and collective, needs a fuller integration of many approaches, including the ancient shamanic, and more mystical or contemplative spiritual practices and personal development. Right alongside the speed and computational power of artificial intelligence.
So how do we get even deeper tethered in the natural human capacities that help create the space and receive the impulses of new evolutionary energy feeling its way into humanity, and integrate newly emerging technologies and sources of knowledge? How do we facilitate this integration in a meta-modern global landscape that is constantly evolving? In this special Portals conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast.
March 1st, 2024
EPISODE: 069 Rebel Wisdom and the Trauma Myth
Many news platforms today still at times refer to the struggles of life in 2023 as residual pandemic trauma — directly influenced by the painful events beginning in 2020. Is it really fair and accurate to connect today’s behavior and attitudes to a three-year-old ‘trauma’?
There’s no doubt the pandemic caused pain and suffering, and trauma, for millions of people directly affected. But as everyday life finds a post-pandemic new normal, is it helpful to our personal and collective healing and rebalance to see ourselves as traumatized? Or has trauma become a convenient rationale and strategy to avoid fully facing unsettling aspects of our changing reality?
The pandemic is one example of how trauma can become what some people describe as a culture and identity — a myth we hold onto to explain and excuse our behavior, where every struggle is attributed to trauma. We explore the nature and outcomes of this all-encompassing focus on trauma in this Portals conversation between Aviv Shahar and Alexander Beiner, author, podcaster, and co-founder of Rebel Wisdom, a highly regarded platform for new ideas in this time of change.
Alexander traces his journey to Rebel Wisdom and reflects on the extraordinary phenomenon of its rapid growth as a global community. The conversation then takes a deeper look at the trauma myth.
February 16th, 2024
EPISODE: 068 Introducing Portals Into the Soul
Portals Into the Soul invites us to realize the soul wants us to be fulfilled — to live a life as closely aligned as possible to the greater connections, intelligence and qualities that are the human’s universal birthright.
Through a contemplative inquiry process, we can open a living conversation with the soul and its many facets and capabilities. It’s letting the unconscious lead the way as we build a bridge to a bridge (the soul itself.)
Other dimensions of engaging with the soul are explored in The Ghost and the Inner Conclave.
Aviv Shahar and several members of the Portals team get together in this conversation to offer their reflections and experience of the Portals Into the Soul Preamble and the first chapter, which will be published here next month.
February 2nd, 2024
EPISODE: 067 Evolving Together
Is there a unique human or universal possibility in “we” that simply is not available to even the most finely developed “me”? When two human beings meet in purpose — really meet, not just be in close proximity — can they unlock in each other a greater growth and evolutionary potential than either one can even perceive on their own?
We can see in world history the obvious survival and evolutionary benefit to living collectively in families, tribes, communities and cities; safety at many levels in numbers. We also see where survival and "safety" can fuel fierce competition and rivalry over resources, ideology and culture. Will fear always override every higher human impulse that would naturally bring people together?
Fortunately, no. We can find stories all across the planet of miraculous healing and transformation that take place when people cultivate with each other an ecology that’s open and trusting, creating a new sense of what is possible as we evolve mutually and collectively. What else could be holding us back?
In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by two Portals friends and life-long spiritual seekers, Nigel Geeves and Well. Through their own journeys they explore and reveal what becomes possible when humans seek to evolve together.
January 19th, 2024
EPISODE: 066 Current Openings #10: The Einstein Brief
We haven’t followed Albert Einstein’s ratio exactly here on Portals, but there is great wisdom in his insight that if given an hour to solve a problem, he’d spend 55 minutes focusing on the problem, and five minutes thinking about solutions. It’s one of the perceptions helping us uncover practical solutions to the puzzle and pain of the human predicament.
In the latest addition of the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, we distill the new intelligence, power and potential discovered as we face the challenges of living a purposeful life in a time of chaos and crises. Earlier Current Openings applied Einstein’s advice and clearly defined the dilemmas: the addiction trap; the knowledge and emotion problems; the brain/body conundrum.
In this conversation, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis review the profound insights that are opening pathways to the true nature and potential of the human mind and emotions. We also see the healing available when we live a life in natural balance and harmony with the planet and universe.
January 5th, 2024
EPISODE: 065 The Next Renaissance, Part 2 - Seeding Cultural Change
What if we paraphrase a popular saying about the devil* and think “The greatest trick the modern world ever pulled was getting humanity to believe there aren’t any options”?
As cultural and ecological crises deepen around the world, there are visionaries taking steps to demonstrate that, yes, we have options in how we choose to live and the future we imagine for ourselves and the planet.
This emerging and powerful sense of new possibility is transforming, among many other endeavors, how we think about and create a sense of community — the ways we work, live and engage with one another and our environment. Intentional neighborhoods, “metamodern monasteries”, and virtually connected global networks are all part of an expanding vision for a collective human experience.
Of course, no one is saying it’s going to be an easy transformation. For example, a cultural undercurrent we all share in our collective imagination is for a superhero to come and save the day; always an individual, never a group of people talking through their differences
We talk through many visions and ideas for a new approach to community in the second part of our conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French-Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation. Part 1 explored the emerging, new second Renaissance.
December 22, 2023
EPISODE: 064 The Next Renaissance, Part 1 - The Art of Metamorphosis
What would it take for us to see the ecological and cultural crises sweeping the planet as possible harbingers of a higher transformation and metamorphosis, a second global Renaissance? Big economic and political change can be traumatic, for individuals and communities. What if the global upheavals shaking our modern way of life actually are part of a natural cycle in evolution, a necessary correction in aiding the appearance of updated human potential?
Considering the possibility of a new global Renaissance could also mean revisiting and questioning some of the pillars of modernity that have marked social and cultural progress. Can the individual, the “I” - centric, embrace a new form of community and shared human experience? What about a religion of the future, centered on inner development rather than dogma, to bring people together with a knowing that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves?
A personal and collective metamorphosis could revive the sacred nature of art, which throughout history has been an expression of humanity and a shared experience of a universal impulse.
We explore the many questions and perceptions about a possible new global Renaissance in the first part of a Portals conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French - Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation.
December 08, 2023
EPISODE: 063 The Development Edge #1 - The Art of Being Together
With so much interest in creating a new type of collective living experience, it’s reasonable to wonder why the “we” space is seen to be so important in supporting the next big leap in evolution. What can’t the individual alone — me, just being me — accomplish?
There is a deepening awareness that a new future, a transforming universal possibility, is revealing itself both through individuals and a collective experience: new configurations of people living, working, and creating together. Small and intimate; networks; experimental.
The “me” is a fundamental step in personal development. Becoming a catalyst for a larger universal possibility isn’t just a solo act; it needs the power of collective intelligence and integrated capacity. Plus, the natural fulfillment of humans connecting and being together.
“Collective” also may not be the best word to describe people coming together in a mutual purpose and vision that respects and allows the individual to be a “me,” inside a much more potent connected creative potential.
To help us explore the many faces and possibilities of communal endeavors, Aviv Shahar is joined by Portals friend, author, consultant and Emmy Award-winning documentary film director Tucker Walsh, and musician Turquoise.
November 24, 2023
EPISODE: 062 What is Healing?
Imagine a process of healing that is powerful enough to restore wellbeing and transform a life, a family, a community with just a one-degree shift in perception or attention; a state of health and wholeness not defined by medicine or ecology, culture or location.
In a time of cultural and environmental upheaval, the natural and regenerative paths to relief of anxiety, pain, and a sense of separation offer us deeper awareness of the true nature of healing — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. A healthy and balanced mind and body can be the natural outcome of a life rooted in the understanding that wholeness and healing are a human birthright, inherent in our design and purpose. The transforming perception of our natural integration and potential can be the journey of a lifetime, or it can happen in a single moment.
In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by two practitioners with extensive experience in the process of restoration, wholeness, and healing: Lonny Jarrett, author, scholar, and teacher of East Asian medicine who has practiced acupuncture and herbology for more than 40 years, and Alexander Love, an acupuncturist, life coach, and cranial - sacral therapist, who brings a unique integration of modalities.
Lonny and Alexander discuss their understanding and life-long experience with the healing process, including personal stories of trauma and regeneration.
November 10, 2023
EPISODE: 061 A Conversation with Dr. Keith Witt, Part 2 - How to Love and Evolve
Just how important are relationships, really, to our health and happiness? What about to our sense of emotional and spiritual growth and fulfillment? We can trace the influence of intimacy on human development through evolution all the way back to the Big Bang. Humans are social in a way unlike anything else in the universe.
The complexity, beauty and possibility of the many forms of human relationships have been a lifelong passion and pursuit of Dr. Keith Witt, pioneering integral psychotherapist, author and teacher. We met Dr. Keith in the first part of his conversation with Aviv Shahar, on the hero’s journey from “Trauma to Transcendence”.
In part two of their conversation, Dr. Keith traces his own healing journey through early trauma, and the influence of the martial arts in his embrace of the complementary natures of the warrior and the healer. He reveals the inspiration behind his teaching and writing, and the experiences that helped form his core understanding that “everything is relationships”.
Along the way, Dr. Keith also has deepened awareness of many dimensions of the human’s higher, universal nature and the ongoing evolution of consciousness.
October 27, 2023
EPISODE: 060 A Conversation with Dr. Keith Witt, Part 1 - Trauma to Transcendence
Is it a big stretch to think of struggling with trauma as part of a hero’s journey? Or is it integral for the hero’s transformation? How do we metabolize feeling weak or diminished by fear, anxiety and pain from traumatic events that at times can seem beyond our ability to cope?
What if we understood that even the willingness to face a trauma will stimulate the parts of the brain responsible for resilience and, over time, build strength and courage? Advances in neuroscience have shed light on some of the brain’s hidden functions in times of pain and trauma, and the resulting influences on our responses and behavior.
Moving through the phases of healing trauma is what builds the road to our eventual transformation. We apply emerging new wisdom and strength to reconcile and reshape our experiences with trauma, and perhaps inspire others on their own healing odyssey. A real hero’s journey.
Unraveling the nature of trauma and its healing is the focus of this conversation between Aviv Shahar and Dr. Keith Witt, an internationally known integral psychotherapist, teacher and author of 15 books. Keith has conducted over 70,000 therapy sessions, written hundreds of blog posts, and appeared on numerous podcasts, including his own, The Shrink and The Pundit, and Witt & Wisdom.
October 13, 2023
EPISODE: 059 In Search of Wholeness
Isn’t it curious the only species on the planet that appears concerned about or pursues the notion of “wholeness” is the human? Other highly intelligent and social animals — such as dolphins and elephants — show no evidence of feeling an inner fragmentation, separation from purpose, or impulse to connect with a source of higher intelligence.
The comparison might be a bit humorous, but it’s a uniquely human feeling to have somehow become separated from the regenerative and creative forces that should naturally flow through and connect us with each other, the planet, and cosmos. Defining wholeness is a challenge: integrating mind and body? The physical and spiritual? The personal and the universal? Or is it found in being joined to something greater?
Why is a feeling of separation so common? Perhaps it’s the accumulated pain and trauma, personal and collective; technology in many forms replacing human faculties and intimacy; an education system that churns out interchangeable parts for vast economic engines, instead of naturally aware and aligned human beings.
In this conversation, we explore these inquiries and more. Aviv Shahar is joined by two next-gen leaders pioneering practical tools and assistance for creating less fragmented lives. Jenn Reilly founded Raising Wholeness, a new paradigm for parenting in wholeness, and Forrest Wilson, co-founder of Light in Action, an “incubator for consciousness” supporting projects and passion on the journey of wholeness.
September 29, 2023
EPISODE: 058 Current Openings #9 - The Emotion Problem
The popular concept of emotional intelligence only begins to scratch the surface of understanding the true nature and power of the human emotion.
Emotions can uplift and heal and transform a life or relationship. They can also inflict and become self-destructive; lead us to either our salvation or downfall. Some people believe the emotion plays a central role in human evolution. Why is an energy so powerful and personal often so unpredictable and seemingly hard to manage?
A clue is in the word: “emotion” comes from a Latin derivative meaning “energy in motion”. Emotion isn’t static; it creates energetic pathways connecting people with themselves, with one another, with their communities, and the universe. The real emotion problem is not emotion itself; it’s how we use the most powerful energy naturally generated by our human design.
In this new episode of “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis delve deeper into the nature, mystery, and larger potential of human emotions. The conversation adds a new chapter to the unfolding story of the human predicament.
September 15, 2023
EPISODE: 057 Current Openings #8 - The Energy Problem
Many of us are getting robbed every day, whether we know it or not. We just may be robbing ourselves, too, without fully understanding the consequences of our behavior. It could be through ignorance, lack of attention, or bad decisions. Whatever the cause, we’re getting robbed of the very energy that enables good health, inspiration, and possibility of higher connection, all to the detriment of our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing.
What do we mean? Throughout Portals we explore the energetic nature of human life: our physical systems, mind and body balance, creativity, and natural connections to higher intelligence and expanding awareness, all depend on different levels and natures of energy.
Every feeling, idea, and thinking pattern carries energetic potential; we are continually generating or consuming energy from internal and external sources. But what quality of energy? Nourishing or depleting, toxic or regenerative, we can choose.
In the latest chapter of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis guide us through a deeper look at our energetic nature and the five basic fuels we use to generate energy. They explore the various energy ‘robbers’ that can leave us susceptible to imbalance and ill health.
September 1, 2023
EPISODE: 056 How Purpose Evolves
What is the power of a motivating purpose in one’s life?
What happens when our chosen purpose seems to run out? What do we do when the expected fulfillment at the high point of a career or other life quest feels empty, less thrilling, than anticipated? How do you recalibrate when the change you worked so hard to catalyze has a timeline that doesn’t match our expectations?
For example, consider what we call the corporate refugees, executives who ticked all the right boxes, made the money, but still find something missing; or veteran change makers and leaders, who might wonder if their driving energy has been used up or burned out. How can any one of us, at any stage in our lives, discover a sense of renewal that propels us forward in harmony with an evolving world and universe?
In this conversation, Aviv Shahar explores the many levels and expressions of human purpose with Holly Woods, author, consultant, transformation leader and founder of the Emergence Institute. Holly works directly with people from all paths and levels of accomplishment to discover and re-enliven their purpose and passion. She generously uses her own journey of success and shadow to illuminate a life of self-discovery and change.
August 18, 2023
EPISODE: 055 Insurrection of Belief
August 4, 2023
EPISODE: 054 A Community of Leaders
In many Portals conversations we explore the nature of the emerging new universal possibility not as a separate and distant change, but as a living reality — an uplifting evolutionary impulse that can transform lives, communities and our planetary ecology.
Especially in a time of political and environmental upheaval, how do we discover and more fully engage with the real potential of personal and collective transformation? What is the nature of leadership in a transformational journey of people and communities whose vision is to co-create a positive, sustainable future for humanity and the planet?
In this conversation we get a deeper look at the kind of leadership that can facilitate emerging universal change and transformation. Aviv Shahar is joined by Geoff Fitch and Abigail Lynam, from Pacific Integral and Generating Transformative Change (GTC) North America. Jeff and Abigail recount their personal journeys of change and growth, and many years of leading the transformational experience of groups and individuals on three continents.
July 21, 2023
EPISODE: 053 The Mind of the Universe
In many Portals conversations we explore the nature and meaning of what some people describe as expanded or greater consciousness — experiencing directly higher levels of intelligence and creativity than are ordinarily accessible through physical senses; connecting and communing with the universal source of cosmic or divine inspiration and purpose.
The paths through history to expanded awareness or deeper levels of spiritual awakening are almost as varied as humans themselves: meditation and spiritual practices; physical ecstasy; hypnosis, and mind-altering substances found in nature or the laboratory.
In this conversation, we follow the unique journey of awakening and transformation of Professor Christopher M. Bache, who explored the nature of consciousness through the clinical use of LSD in a 20-year study. Chris chronicles his experiences, perceptions, and thoughts about the future of humanity in his book LSD and The Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven. Chris currently is professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University.
Chris and Aviv Shahar take a deeper look at the premise of an intelligent and purposeful universe that actually seeks communion with the human species, and the moment of peril now facing humanity and the planet.
July 7, 2023
EPISODE: 052 Current Openings #7: The Knowledge Problem
Most of us would probably agree that our brains and minds are restless: continually consuming (unless we’re asleep) vast amounts of data and information from limitless sources, sometimes of dubious quality, a behavior that is often the direct result of how we programmed ourselves to think. They usually run on automatic pilot, craving a high-calorie diet of constant stimulation.
We know our body and physical systems will suffer from a diet too rich in the wrong kinds of calories and energy. So too our brain, mind, and higher faculties can’t function near their natural capacity and ability on a diet of ‘junk food’ — knowledge with potent energetic content that can supercharge the brain, but leave the rest of our systems deprived of real mental and spiritual nourishment.
Our freedom of choice as human beings means we are free to fill our minds with toxic and self-destructive patterns and programs, or the knowledge and awareness that feed our natural intelligence and connections to greater universal possibilities. But how do we improve our mental diet?
In the latest chapter of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore the seven types of natural knowledge that nourish our mental activity and support change and personal growth.
June 23, 2023
EPISODE: 051 The New Intentional Communities
It shouldn’t be surprising that with the cultural changes born of the pandemic, and the ecological crisis of climate change, there is a new passion for, simply put, finding new ways to live — creating ecologies that will support the kind of life we imagine is possible.
It isn’t easy; as intentional communities create their visions, they face familiar challenges: building a shared living space that respects an individual’s passion and growth, while harmoniously supporting mutual values and mission. Surviving practically and financially, when the motivating energy isn’t about making money.
Easy, no. But there is renewed interest — perhaps an emerging global movement — in imagining new blueprints for collective living in this time of cultural and ecological upheaval. Current events poin t to the motivation: forced isolation during the pandemic; environmental catastrophe from the extraction and depletion of natural and human resources, and a deep intuition that we are due for and can bring about a constructive reset for humanity.
What could new models for collaborative living look like? In this conversation, Aviv Shahar joins author, consultant and Emmy Award-winning documentary film director Tucker Walsh for a closer look at the rise of new intentional communities. Tucker’s life - long interest in group and collective living has taken him to communities around the planet.
June 10, 2023
EPISODE: 050 Ring of Valiance
It’s the kind of word we don’t see or hear much anymore: valiant. And its siblings valor, fortitude, gallant, and heroic. Or sayings such as “They had the courage of their convictions.” They almost sound quaint and a bit old - fashioned, like chivalry. Is th e nature of valiance even a relevant consideration in a digital age?
Yes, absolutely. It’s actually easy to find people who believe that valiance, bravery, and determination are core values and virtues in a character formation that would lie at the heart o f a regenerative life. Valiance is part of the natural strength and resilience found in the t rue inner nature of all humans.
In the face of global environmental and cultural crises, where people can live in fear for their fundamental safety and survival, v aliance is the living defiance, a connection to our higher self that allows healing and recovery. Consider a ring of valiance: a global network of people with shared value for a natural character of courage and fortitude, and the platform of possibility it would offer to a better future.
In this conversation, several longtime Portals friends join Aviv Shahar for a bold exploration of the nature and place of valiance in this time of personal and collective transformation.
May 26, 2023
EPISODE: 049 Could Armageddon Be an Inner-geddon?
We no longer need Hollywood to create ever-bigger fictional disasters to scare us into believing our world just may be on the threshold of Armageddon or other apocalyptic scenarios that threaten the future of humanity and the planet. Real-time, real-world environmental collapse, war, and cultural chaos are brought into our awareness on any media platform we may use.
Do the true origins and causing forces of the dramatic and powerful struggles we see around the globe really lie in the physical world, where they manifest and shape our communities and cultures? Or is the outer world, even the chaos and destruction, a physical reflection of the perceptions and sense of self that form our deeper collective inner life?
In other words, is it more accurate to think of Armageddon as an inner-geddon, the real location of the prophesized final battle between darkness and light, the past and the future? In many narratives this “end of days” also brings the realization that as one world culminates, another emerges, with the long-awaited evolutionary next step for humanity.
To help us explore such a deep and profound mystery, we brought together a group of Portals friends — all accomplished teachers, writers, thinkers and doers.
May 12, 2023
EPISODE: 048 How to Be a Friend
Isn’t it interesting that arguably the most connected, in touch and in tune generations ever, Gen Z and millennials — generally people born after 1980 — also report in some surveys feeling lonelier, with fewer close friends, than their older siblings or parents?
Even in the digital age of nonstop texts, tweets and saturation social media, technology alone won’t kindle the warmth and depth of real human - to - human bonds. How then in our personal and collective journeys do we sustain the relationships often at the core of our wellbeing and emotional health — our friendships?
Portals brought together a group of our international friends to explore their experience of friendship and its role in the happiness, health, and transformation of a life. They find companionship, acceptance, trust and love, yet also challenge, strength and the desire for us to be our best.
The friends’ conversation with Aviv Shahar reveals the inspiration and transformative power of friendship.
April 28, 2023
EPISODE: 047 Dancing in the Flow
It’s familiar to hear athletes and artists talking about “being in the zone” during moments of peak performance — that feeling of total focus and attention that allows access to one’s best and often a sense of greater awareness and capability. It’s sometimes described as a feeling of somehow reaching beyond what we thought were our limits.
What’s remarkable in being “in the flow,” as it is also known, is a natural state of enhanced awareness, connection, and capacity that is always nearby, available to anyone as a source of new intelligence, creativity, and energy for all aspects of our lives and journey. We can also learn to better recognize the mental and energetic barriers that may be preventing a more frequent experience of true flow.
In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by three Portals friends — Dan Leahy, Catherine Johnson, and Leticia Nieto — who practice, facilitate, and increase awareness of the flow state in their personal and professional lives as educators, counselors, and therapists.
April 14, 2023
EPISODE: 046 Current Openings #6 - The Human Predicament & the Planetary Program
We know from recent conversations the path out of the addiction trap and other unhealthy habitual patterns leads to a life of better balance between the head and the heart, and closer natural alignment with the ways, energies and rhythms of the planet. But it’s really just a start; the jo urney can go much deeper.
Imagine a two - way conscious living exchange between the human being and the planet for the continual enhancement and benefit of both. It’s part of what we could describe as the planet’s operating system or program. The human (along with other organic life) is an integral player in a process and consciousness that are sometimes called reciprocal maintenance.
A simple example is a tree. The roots pull in nourishment from the soil, while the leaves and photosynthesis absorb and convert cosmic energy from the sun into other types of nourishment that support the tree’s continued growth. The tree in turn cleans and balances the ecosystem in which it lives, to the benefit of organic life.
For the human, aligning to the natural speeds, cycles, and energies of the planet allows us to better sense our own finer inner systems and technology that, by design, connect to universal systems and intelligence, which we flow in mutual exchange with our host, the planet.
Fortunately, we get more insight and understanding of this amazing process in this conversation between Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis, the latest in the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.”
March 31, 2023
EPISODE: 045 Current Openings #5 - The Addiction Trap
It’s hard to watch the news without also seeing and feeling the pain of toxic and self-destructive behavior influencing so many lives, such as widening and lethal addictions and extremely polarizing ideas and actions. Addiction is a persistent and intense urge to use or do something that brings unhealthy negative consequences. Why do so many people struggle with addictive behavior? Why does humanity seem to be going collectively mad? What are the reasons for the extreme toxicity and polarization?
This predicament and its root cause in the brain/body conundrum were introduced in our last edition of the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” In our new Current Openings, hosts Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis delve deeper into the mystery of the human brain and mind - and the pathways of transformation.
As the conversation begins to reveal, the human brain is open-ended potential, capable of creating new circuitries and connections. It craves constant stimulation, the more the better, often to the detriment of our overall well being. Addiction to drugs and extreme behavior, as examples, can become familiar outcomes of brain dominance.
Aviv and David trace the steps that began this conundrum, from thinking that true knowledge could best be sourced outside of self, to shutting down the intuition and natural human connection to universal intelligence and inspiration. They also highlight the steps back to a balanced, regenerative life.
March 17, 2023
EPISODE: 044 Current Openings #4 - The Brain/Body Conundrum
Perhaps the most serious predicament facing the human race may be easy to spot by its toxic and destructive effects on our life and the planet, but why is its core cause so hard to see?
It’s a critical puzzle to ponder, which means it’s also an excellent topic for our special series “Current Openings — What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” This collaboration with David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher, and co-founder of Energy Worlds, explores what’s appearing in the flow of newly emerging intelligence and evolutionary possibility. The predicament: environmental and cultural crises that seriously threaten life on this planet; a level of disharmony, discord, and disconnect that would have been hard to imagine even a few years ago.
In this conversation, David and Aviv Shahar explore the predicament’s origins in what is known as the brain/body conundrum. Our brain, a marvel of engineering and power, continually seeks stimulation and excitement, often in the extreme. And often to the detriment of our bodies, which by design are naturally tuned to the regenerative rhythms and energies of the planet.
Imagine the predicament when human lives governed by the brain’s drive for constant stimulation — rather than the body’s natural connection to planetary regeneration — are multiplied on a global scale. But... there is a promise in the predicament, and a way out of the conundrum, as David and Aviv reveal.
March 03, 2023
EPISODE: 043 Current Openings #3 - The Promissory Grace
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.
February 17, 2023
EPISODE: 042 Current Openings #2 - The Natural Laws
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.
February 03, 2023
EPISODE: 041 All Things Connected
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.
January 20, 2023
EPISODE: 040 Can You Be Authentic?
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.
January 06, 2023
EPISODE: 039 Current Openings: What the World Doesn't Quite Get Yet - The Esoteric Truth
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?
December 23, 2022
EPISODE: 038 The Future of Education
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.
December 09, 2022
EPISODE: 037 A Metamodern Solarpunk Regenerative Vision
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.
November 25, 2022
EPISODE: 036 The Co-Creative Power of Life
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.
November 11, 2022
EPISODE: 035 The Healing Journey: A Neurobiological Shamanic Psychotherapy
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
October 21, 2022
EPISODE: 034 Imagine 2045
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.
October 7, 2022
EPISODE: 033 The Way We Flow
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.
September 23, 2022
EPISODE: 032 Homo Universalis Activates
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.
September 9, 2022
EPISODE: 031 Falling Upwards
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.
August 26, 2022
EPISODE: 030 Entering the Higher
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.
August 12, 2022
EPISODE: 029 Searing Moments and their Transformational Power
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.
July 29, 2022
EPISODE: 028 Co-Creating Humanity's Future - Foray Three
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.
July 15, 2022
EPISODE: 027 Co-Creating Humanity's Future - Foray Two
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.
July 1, 2022
EPISODE: 026 Co-Creating Humanity's Future - Foray One
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.
June 17, 2022
EPISODE: 025 Leading from the Unconscious
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.
June 3, 2022
EPISODE: 024 The Poetry of Transformation
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.
May 22, 2022
EPISODE: 023 A New World Emerging
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.
May 6, 2022
EPISODE: 022 Toward a Life Well Lived
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.
April 26, 2022
EPISODE: 021 Leadership as an Agency of Assistance and Easement
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.
April 8, 2022
EPISODE: 020 Art as an Evolving Conversation
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.
March 25, 2022
EPISODE: 019 We Live Inside a Story We Create
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.
March 17, 2022
EPISODE: 018 The Art of Cognizant and Mindful Living
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.
March 10, 2022
EPISODE: 017 The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part, Part Two
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.
March 4, 2022
EPISODE: 016 The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part, Part One
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.
February 24, 2022
EPISODE: 015 Thriving Now with Jeff Vander Clute
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.
February 17, 2022
EPISODE: 014 Sensemaking for Life and Career, Part Two
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.
February 03, 2022
EPISODE: 013 Sensemaking for Life and Career, Part One
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.
January 27, 2022
EPISODE: 012 The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence
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.
January 17, 2022
EPISODE: 011 The Human as Spiritual Resource
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.
January 03, 2022
EPISODE: 010 Essence Music: The Emergence of a Collective Agency
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.
DECEMBER 23, 2021
EPISODE: 009 Inquiries Into Humanity's Future, Part 2
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.
DECEMBER 09, 2021
EPISODE: 008 Inquiries Into Humanity's Future, Part 1
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.
DECEMBER 02, 2021
EPISODE: 007 Polarity Management Moves
The core invitation we're making here is to recognize that each of us is one whole, integrated life. And that one whole integrated life is made of and is encompassing, and encompassed by, a universe of tremendous multiplicity within and without. And what we have explored here are the different moves you can make to release, to unleash, to unlock, to free up, to integrate and to transcend as we become a more fully embodied human life. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Kyriaki Nikandrou and Liz Halter to engage in this rich examination of Polarity Management Moves.
NOVEMBER 22, 2021
EPISODE: 006 The Human as a Fountain of Encouragement and Hope
The focus of our conversation today is that the human is a fountain of encouragement and hope. We want to sense into, and reflect on, the qualities of hope and encouragement, to explore what they are and how those properties, those qualities, those essences - how they influence our lives.
The essence of this conversation you're about to listen to and to discover is a weave of experiences from teachers, parents, and people who were touched and who touched others in moments where all that was needed was a little bit of help, with encouragement and hope, and how central these qualities are in our lives. Join Aviv as he and his guests dive deeper into this exploration.
NOVEMBER 13, 2021
EPISODE: 005 The Role of Touch
There was, perhaps, a time when the only tool of healing was the human hand. And, to this very day, whenever we have an unfamiliar feeling in our body, the first thing we do is touch the area it is arising from and perform our simple, initial, diagnosis. Today, however, we hear advertising touting the touchless world we live in. How did we get here? And, is this where we want to be, or is there a better way?
In this conversation, Aviv Shahar speaks with Jessica Wapner, who traces the arc of touch as a healing modality through the centuries, and how it has gradually been removed from our ever more standardized methods of healthcare. And then she gives us a peek into where we might go next. Join Aviv, as he dives deeper into this exploration.
NOVEMBER 04, 2021
EPISODE: 004 A Study of Balance
We live in a world of rapid change. And to engage with the many challenges this unique time can bring may leave us struggling with what it means to have a balanced life - a life of clarity and purpose of what is truly important. But what is a balanced life? A key perception is that life is a journey of coming into and going out of balance. Resisting the pressure to continually define ourselves and preserving an inner space in which we can grow, change and evolve is itself a pretty radical idea and important in this study. Join Aviv Shahar and Ofer Dotan for A Study of Balance.
OCTOBER 21, 2021
EPISODE: 003 Chivalry in a Postmodern World
The propelling impulse of Portals of Perception is the sense that we are entering or have entered a meaningful and important evolutionary upgrade process. That actually we all have a part to play in this process in that we can contribute by way of leading, healing, discovering in a variety of different roles and functions. There is also the element of looking to discover what of the past is still true and is a necessary bridge to whatever may unfold in the next evolutionary upgrade that is developing in front of our eyes. So there is a function in honoring and harvesting the best of what was as a bridging work for tomorrow.
Today’s conversation is about the idea of chivalry. What was chivalry at its core? How is this core separate from the romantic legends that developed about it later? Why did people, throughout the ages, feel drawn and attracted to chivalrous ideas values and virtues? Are these just old, outdated ideas or do they have some validity in this postmodern, cynical, postmodern world? Join Aviv, as he dives deeper into this fascinating inquiry.
OCTOBER 14, 2021
EPISODE: 002 Discover the Human Orchestra
We see it among a group of people all the time: one person is shy while another person loves to be the center of attention. One person is intellectual while another person is more emotional. We see the nerdy, geeky types and we see the athletically proficient. But what we don’t always acknowledge is that we have all of these characters within us and, depending on many factors of our life thus far, some of them get more outplayed than others. So the artist, the caregiver, the friend, the parent, these are all part of the collective instrumentation of the human life and it’s possibilities. Join Aviv Shahar as he invites a panel of guests to explore this 4 - part series on the idea of discovering the human orchestra and the significance that we are not just one thing, but many things in one.
OCTOBER 07, 2021
EPISODE: 001 The Power of Community
Humans have been building communities since the dawn of time. Yet, their importance to an individual’s life, to the family’s life and to the neighborhood’s life may never be more critical than today, while their actual place in our daily world may never have been so fractured.
Join Aviv as he and guest Jane Goodman share in an exploration of the power of community and explore questions such as: What is community? What purpose does it serve? And what enables communities to thrive?
Jane shares her unique experience building a rural community and the lessons she’s learned about herself, and leadership, through her trials and tribulations.
