Library
On the Air: A Meeting of the Ways with Diane Solomon and Robert Thurman: Man of Peace
Diane Solomon, host of A Meeting of the Ways on KKUP, sits down with renowned Buddhist scholar Dr. Robert Thurman to discuss his no-holds-barred graphic novel, Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet. Thurman also discusses Tibet, countering violence with peace, his work with Tibet House US, and his upcoming Bay Area appearances.
Blog: Finding Your Spiritual Path Part 1: Understanding Betrayal
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Since the movie Spotlight came out in 2015, more and more people have come to our classes at the Sacred Stream looking for a different path to spiritual understanding. Spotlight is about the efforts of a group of journalists from The Boston Globe who were directed by their editor, Marty Baron, to investigate accusations against John Geoghan, a Catholic priest who had been accused of molesting young boys in different parishes during his long tenure as a spiritual leader in the Catholic community. The movie focused not only on these distressing events but also on the way the Roman Catholic Church tried to keep the truth of these events from the public. The investigation revealed a massive cover-up at the highest levels of the Church of the effect of Geoghan’s actions, and pointed to similar occurrences and cover-ups over the course of many years by the Church.
Because Sacred Stream has long been known for its non-dogmatic, inclusive approach to the world of spirit, it has been a safe place for people to explore their difficulty in incorporating these events within the context of their faith.
Podcast: Episode 34: Reverend Matthew Fox
This month on the Sacred Stream Radio Podcast, host Laura Chandler speaks with internationally acclaimed scholar, activist, educator, and spiritual theologian, Matthew Fox. In this episode, Reverend Fox talks about the importance of Christian mysticism and how the early Christian mystics were focused on creation spirituality and often found themselves at odds with the dominant paradigm of the church. He discusses his own dismissal from the Catholic church by Cardinal Ratzinger for the alleged heresies of being a feminist, referring to God as both masculine and feminine, for working too closely with Native Americans, and his belief in original blessing. Fox also discusses his latest work, books, the opening of his institute, and the painful effects of consumer capitalism on the spirit and how to mitigate them.
On the Air: Divine Insight Podcast: Coming to Peace – Resolving Conflict Within Ourselves and With Others – Dr. Isa Gucciardi
On the Divine Insight Podcast, host Travis Taylor takes a compassionate and enlightened approach and accesses all aspects of being to provide guidance and insight that empowers and inspires clients and students around the country. During his show, he provides intuitive, spiritual, and practical information and techniques that listeners may use to access and develop their unique gifts and multi-sensory abilities and create abundance in all aspects of their lives. Each week Travis brings a heightened divine approach to health, healing, and wellness in all areas of listeners’ lives.
Blog: The Shamanic Journey: Companions on the Path
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
I have often been asked why, after having studied so many spiritual traditions, I have found shamanic practice to be one of the spiritual paths that is so helpful. For me, as for many people I have spoken with, it is a joy to find a path that leads directly into the heart of nature and provides a vehicle for establishing a nourishing and dynamic relationship with it. The shamanic journey opens a world of possibility to understand the intelligence of the natural world better. In his book Animal Speak, Ted Andrews describes the way these possibilities opened for him. And in their book Awakening to the Spirit World, Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman describe the way the world of the unseen aspects of nature emerges through shamanic practice.
But there is another aspect of shamanic practice that can be profoundly meaningful: the relationship that develops between the journeyer and the guides — the aspects of nature that emerge from the processes of the journey to offer teaching, guidance, and wisdom.
On the Air: Chitheads Podcast: Episode #50: An Interview with Isa Gucciardi
Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. sits down with Jacob Kyle, host of Embodied Philosophy’s Chitheads Podcast, to discuss her early influences and how they informed her development of Depth Hypnosis. She also demonstrates the way in which Buddhist principles and shamanic techniques work together in Depth Hypnosis by presenting case study descriptions. Special focus is on the way that Depth Hypnosis addresses the roots of anxiety and depression.
Video: Integrating Insight from Psychotropic Plants with Depth Hypnosis with Isa Gucciardi
Isa Gucciardi and Laura Chandler discuss the importance of processing the information received from their experience with plant medicines such as ayahuasca, psilocybin, peyote, iboga, etc. Isa explains how Depth Hypnosis helps people translate and integrate the information received from these plants. This interview takes place at the Sacred Stream Center in Berkeley, CA.
Blog: Buddhism in Action Part 2: A Depth Hypnosis Case Study
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Most of us are very attached to having what we want happen and preventing what we don’t want from happening. But when we try to create a life in this way, we develop misconceptions about ourselves and the people and world around us. In the Depth Hypnosis method, when considering the issue a client presents and their emotional history, practitioners draw upon this Buddhist idea that we suffer when we are unaware of the way our attachments and aversions drive our behavior, or when we have misconceptions about what our life presents to us and about what that might mean for us.
On the Air: A Meeting of the Ways with Diane Solomon and Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.: Understanding the Experience of the Altered State of Consciousness in Depth Hypnosis, Dreams, and Plant Medicine
Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D., and Diane Solomon, host of A Meeting of the Ways, discuss the similarities and differences between the experience of the altered state of consciousness in Depth Hypnosis, Dreams, and Plant Medicine, focusing particularly on the way each of these methods of accessing broader consciousness can provide a path to healing and insight.
Podcast: Episode 33: Thupten Jinpa: A Fearless Heart
This month Laura reaches back into the Sacred Stream archives for an interview she did with Thupten Jinpa when he was on his book tour for A Fearless Heart. The interview was impromptu and took place at Laura’s kitchen table, where she talked to Jinpa about his work with H.H. Dalai Lama, CCare, the Compassion Studies, and his perspective on generating more compassion in the world. This episode also contains a talk Jinpa gave at the Sacred Stream Center on Language and Reality. The featured music is from the Monks of Gaden Shartse Dokhang, Jinpa’s former monastery, and their album, The Sacred Chants of Tibet.
Video: Working with Psychotropic Plants with Isa Gucciardi
Isa Gucciardi and Laura Chandler discuss the way shamans have worked with plant medicine and the way people are working with plants like ayahuasca, psilocybin, peyote, and iboga today. They also examine the problems that arise with integrating the altered state experience and examine how Depth Hypnosis can be a helpful for people working with psychotropic plants that wish to experience deeper integration. This interview takes place at the Sacred Stream Center in Berkeley, CA.
Video: Altered States & Depth Hypnosis with Isa Gucciardi
Isa Gucciardi and Laura Chandler discuss the way that altered states, such as meditation, guided visualization, hypnosis, and the shamanic journey, are used in the highly effective therapeutic model, Depth Hypnosis. This interview takes place at the Sacred Stream Center in Berkeley, CA.
Special Announcement: Isa Gucciardi’s Coming to Peace Book Tour
Isa will be offering a series of book readings and signings all around the Bay Area for her new book, Coming to Peace, in the upcoming months. The resolution process of Coming to Peace is unique because it offers ways of mediating external conflicts with others, as well as methods for recognizing and addressing the places where we may be out of balance within ourselves.
Blog: Buddhism in Action Part 1: Depth Hypnosis and Buddha Nature
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Depth Hypnosis is a spiritual counseling model that integrates many principles from Buddhist thought and practice with hypnotherapy, earth-based methods of healing, and transpersonal psychology. The Depth Hypnosis methodology rests upon the understanding that all imbalance is simply information about the way the person has twisted away from their essential nature, or what is known in Buddhism as Buddha Nature. And this is true whether the imbalance arises on a physical level as an autoimmune problem, on an emotional level as a depression, on a mental level as an anxiety or on a spiritual level in something like a “dark night of the soul.”
Special Announcement: Robert Thurman’s Man of Peace Book Tour
Sacred Stream is happy to announce that it is sponsoring Robert A.F. Thurman’s Bay Area book tour for his new graphic novel, Man of Peace, which is a biography of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Dr. Thurman wrote this book in collaboration with William Meyers and Michael Burbank. This book is unique in that it captures all of the aspects of a very complex life in an accessible way.