Library
Podcast: Episode 82: Spiritual Emergency
On this episode, Laura Chandler talks with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. about Spiritual Emergency, a type of healing crisis that can occur when a person has an encounter with psychological, emotional, or spiritual states that lie outside their usual ways of organizing experience. There is a spectrum of response that people who have with Spiritual Emergency – from a state of collapse to a state of acceleration and everything in between. Based on her years of clinical practice, Isa offers her perspective on Spiritual Emergency, examining its causes, and offering helpful suggestions on how to navigate it. Isa is the author of two books, and the creator of the spiritual counseling model Depth Hypnosis. She is also the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream.
Article: To Weave a New World: Shamanic and Tantric Practice
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
To enter the world of Tantra is to enter a world beyond the ordinary. Through a series of catalytic processes, the spiritual seeker is drawn along a path that promises nothing less than the revelation of the nature of reality. This is a promise that also lies at the heart of shamanic practice. Yet the ‘reality’ that reveals itself when the shamanic initiate steps beyond the threshold of ordinary awareness is conceived of differently than that of Tantra.
The reality that is the focus of Tantra lies in the understanding of the human mind. The reality that is understood through shamanic practice emerges through an intimate interface with the unseen powers of the natural world. These two realities are not exclusive from one another, but the thrust and focus of these two practices are at least initially different.
Both systems provide stages of development to educate the initiate as they deepen their understanding about the nature of reality. These stages of development constitute the heart of the practices. Let’s explore these wisdom traditions further and deepen our understanding of how these two paths cross and separate in the process of providing an education about the nature of reality.
Video: Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa with Thupten Jinpa: Subtle Levels of Experience
Esteemed scholar and author Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D. explores subtle levels of experience in this excerpt from his talk on the Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa. Drawing from his book, Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows, considered the quintessential biography on Tsongkhapa, Jinpa offers helpful insights on this subject. This talk is part of the Sacred Stream Speaker Series.
On the Air: Love’s Answer Podcast: Coming to Peace Process with Isa Gucciardi and Elizabeth Sabet
In this episode of the Love’s Answer Podcast, Elizabeth Sabet interviews the creator of Depth Hypnosis and the Coming to Peace Process, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Article: Addressing Self-Harm through Depth Hypnosis
By Joanna Foote Adler, PsyD, CHT
As a human beings, it is not uncommon to have experiences or feelings arise that we feel we cannot tolerate. Emotional pain can be incredibly hard to experience, and it is normal to reach for some way to cope in these kinds of situations. When a situation feels intolerably intense, people will naturally look for a way out of their suffering.
There are many ways to cope with suffering. They range from the most positive strategies, such as compassion, skillfulness, and love, to the quite negative, like self-blame, self-judgment, and self-harm. In these latter strategies people may mistakenly believe they are doing something about their experience by punishing or harming themselves. Perhaps they imagine that if they punish themselves enough, they will not continue to make choices that cause pain. Or perhaps they imagine that if they no longer exist in a body, they would be free of suffering. From a Buddhist point of view, this kind of thinking is seen as a fundamental misunderstanding, the kind of misunderstanding that actually leads to more harm and more pain, as negative coping strategies are piled on top of already existing suffering.
I would like to offer a few thoughts that may be able to help in these kinds of situations which ring true in the context of the spiritual counseling model of Depth Hypnosis.
Podcast: Episode 81: Paul Denniston: Healing Through Yoga
On this episode of the Sacred Stream Radio Podcast, Laura Chandler talks with author, yoga instructor, and the creator of Grief Yoga, Paul Denniston. In his new book, Healing Through Yoga: Transform Loss into Empowerment, Paul teaches the groundbreaking process of Grief Yoga in an accessible way. In their talk, Paul explains the concepts behind Grief Yoga, a process that uses yoga, movement, breath, and sound to help people move through and release pain and reconnect to life and love.
Video: Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa with Thupten Jinpa: Thoughts on Enlightenment
Esteemed scholar and author Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D. offers some thoughts on enlightenment in this excerpt from his talk on the Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa. Drawing from his book, Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows, considered the quintessential biography on Tsongkhapa, Jinpa offers helpful insights on this subject. This talk is part of the Sacred Stream Speaker Series.
Blog: Thoughts at the Spring Equinox
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
As I was untangling the new prayer flags to put up at the Sacred Stream Center for Losar, the Tibetan new year, I realized that the spring equinox this year falls right between the Tibetan new year in early March and the Khmer new year in mid-April.
Both of these celebrations were originally harvest celebrations in Tibet and Cambodia. They were also a time when people made offerings and affirmed their connections to the natural world and its cycles of time.
Within the rhythm of nature’s time, the spring equinox is the moment when the nights and the days are of equal length. It is a time when the sun rises directly due east and sets directly due west. It is the time of the year when the sun rises most quickly and sets most quickly.
On the Air: Kindred Media: The New Return to the Great Mother with Isa Gucciardi
In this interview, Kindred Media’s editor, Lisa Reagan, talks with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. about the seven life initiations needed to move into our full state of wholeness and our full potential for thriving – and what happens when these initiations are broken, interrupted, or culturally unacknowledged. Isa shares her considerable insight into how we are thwarted from completing our seven initiations, and how we can reclaim, and even heal, our innate paths to flourishing.
Video: Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa with Thupten Jinpa: Tsongkhapa’s Relationship to Manjushri
Esteemed scholar and author Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D. talks about the relationship between Tsongkhapa and the deity Manjushri in this excerpt from his talk on the Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa. Drawing from his book, Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows, considered the quintessential biography on this great master, Jinpa offers helpful insights on this relationship. This talk is part of the Sacred Stream Speaker Series.
Podcast: Episode 80: Shamanism and the Inner Experience
On this episode, Laura Chandler highlights an excerpt of a talk given by Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. called Shamanic Paths to Inner Experience. Traditional shamanic cultures have long held an understanding of nature, spirit, and non-ordinary realms of being that contemporary cultures have lost touch with in the larger mainstream of experience. In this fascinating talk, Isa Gucciardi explores some of the ways healers from indigenous traditions have accessed larger aspects of consciousness and the realm of the unseen, for guidance, healing, and insight and speaks about their relevance for us today.
Video: Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa with Thupten Jinpa: The Power of Concentrated Thought
Esteemed scholar and author Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D. talks about the power of concentrated thought in this excerpt from his talk on the Mystical Dimensions of Tsongkhapa. Drawing from his book, Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows, considered the quintessential biography on Tsongkhapa, Jinpa offers helpful insights on this subject. This talk is part of the Sacred Stream Speaker Series.
Podcast: Episode 79: 2021: A Retrospective
On this episode, Laura Chandler takes a look back at a collection of interviews from 2021. She explores the idea of how we create a more inclusive experience of dharma with Spring Washam, the difficulty of growing up as an interracial adoptee and the healing power of music with cellist and clinical psychologist Mia Pixley, and reflects on Michael Schauch’s experience of karma in the mountains of Nepal and his uneasy relationship with yak butter tea. She also revisits her talk with renowned empath and channel, Paul Selig, their discussion of his bestselling book, Alchemy, and how his guides describe the nature of these times and the function of the current pandemic from the perspective of spiritual evolution.
Our featured musical artists are Christopher Tait, Home Learning, Mia Pixley, and Sapphron Obois.
Blog: Reflections on the Winter Solstice
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
As the nights have been growing longer as we approach the winter solstice, I have been reflecting on the relationship between light and darkness from a new perspective. We often think of light and dark as being opposite of one another. In some cases that is true. From one point of view, the light of day is the opposite of the dark of night. But from another vantage point, dark and light are moments of the same cycle of change. That cycle of change determines our experience of reality in utterly fundamental ways. The sun rising and setting is basic to our experience on earth. Yet, we don’t often think about the fact that the sun rising and setting dictates when and how we do almost everything we do. We may not often think about how our lives might be structured without this baseline rhythm the play of light and dark creates.
Podcast: Episode 78: Lisa Broderick: All the Time in the World
Description: On this episode of the Sacred Stream Radio Podcast, Laura Chandler speaks with author, senior executive, and founder of the non-profit Police 2 Peace, Lisa Broderick. Lisa is an accomplished senior executive whose career has been defined by understanding how technology impacts society and changes behavior. She teaches that life is about constant change, in which energy and matter are the basis of transformation. Her passion lies in helping others with little or no scientific or spiritual training master their innate abilities with practices designed to improve their lives, their relationships, and the world.