Spirit Matters

Ann Gleig is a Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at the University of Central Florida. Her research specialties include Buddhism in America and American spiritualities that draw on Buddhism and Hinduism. On a personal level she has practiced in the Insight and Tibetan Nyingma traditions of Buddhism and has been a student of the Diamond Approach for over two decades. She is author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity, which was published in 2019, the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism from 2024, and the co-editor of the anthology Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism. Plus, two forthcoming books. One of them, co-authored with Amy Langenberg, is about sexual abuse in American Buddhism, which we talked about in this interview. The other, now available from the University of Georgia Press, is titled Talking About Cults: Abuse and the Study of New Religious Movements. We focused on that as well, along with related topics having mainly to do with sexual abuse in American spiritual circles and the most efficacious ways to understand it, confront it, and prevent it.

NOTE: in the latter part of the interview there is a glitch in the recording. Ann is referring there to the fraternity house sex scandal at Cornell University.

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The prolific and provocative priest, Matthew Fox, returns to Spirit Matters to speak about two totally different but strangely relate new books. Fr. Fox earned a doctorate in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and was a priest in the Dominican order for more than 30 years before running into trouble with the Vatican. He subsequently became an Episcopal priest, renowned as an innovative theologian, author, and outspoken activist for social justice.

His 44 books have been translated into other languages more than 70 times. Among them are Original Blessing; The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; One River, Many Wells; The Hidden Spirituality of Men; Christian Mystics;and The Pope’s War. His work has contributed a great deal to the modern rediscovery of the Christian mystical tradition and to a rethinking of Christian theology.

As the founder of the University of Creation Spirituality in California, he has reinvented forms of education and worship. His Cosmic Mass, which mixes music, dance, and other contemporary art forms with the western liturgical tradition, has been celebrated more than 100 times in cities throughout North America.

He conducts dozens of workshops each year, serves as visiting scholar at the Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe NM, and continues to turn out books. Here, we talk about two of them: The Beloved Will Guide You: St. John of the Cross and the Triple Dark Night of Our Times, and the provocatively titled Trump and the MAGA Movement as Antichrist. This conversation is not to be missed.

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Dana Sawyer is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and World Religions at the Maine College of Art & Design and the author of biographies of both Aldous Huxley and Huston Smith. His primary expertise is in Hinduism and Buddhism but his work has focused on comparative mysticism, theories of the “perennial philosophy,” and the value of psychedelic experience in the study of mysticism. His most recent book is The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded, which we discussed on this show when it was released two years ago. We spoke about all the above and a lot more about life on the spiritual path.
NOTE: If you’re going to be anywhere near Portland Maine on October 31, come to the workshop Dana and Phil are leading together. Details and registration here.

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This episode's guest is Michael Schauch . Michael is an alpinist—meaning he climbs high mountains—and an award-winning author who, in his words, “lives to explore the depths of nature and the human spirit and share the beauty of connection he discovers along the way.”
A resident of Canada—specifically the mountains of British Columbia—he is a world-traveler and explorer and a Buddhist practitioner who has, for fifteen years, served as a mentor and supporter of Tibetan Buddhist youth in Kathmandu, Nepal, and to young members of his local community in Canada. He also holds an MBA from Queens University and is a member of the Explorers Club—probably a combination you don’t find very often.
He has been published in numerous magazines and his books have been praised by reviewers and well-known spiritual leaders. Those books include A Story of Karma: Finding Love and Truth in the Lost valley of the Himalayaand his new release, Anatta: Heart of Wisdom, which is mainly what we spoke about in this conversation. We touched on a range of topics, including the spiritual value of time in nature, why he says "The way to resolve conflicts with others is to first resolve conflicts within ourselves," and why he quotes his friend, who said, "Those moving about in crazy ways only appear to be crazy until you can hear the music."
You'll find much to draw upon moving forward. Learn more about Michael here: http://www.michaelschauch.com.
NOTE: We recorded this episode before the devastating floods that destroyed parts of Nepal and the lives of many Nepalese and pilgrims. I wish we could have discussed the tragedy.

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Mirabai Starrreturns for her third visit to Spirit Matters. Mirabai is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught philosophy and world religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog.

I first became aware of Mirabai because of her books about – and translations of – some of the pre-eminent Christian mystics—John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila—and later interviewed her about her other excellent books, such as Wild Mercy, which is about female mystics from different traditions, Caravan of No Despair, which is about her own heart-wrenching loss and the transformation that can come from grief, a subject she’s helped a great many people deal with in workshops and online programs, and Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground.

She’s back now with a revised and expanded edition of her 2012 book, God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As always with Mirabai, the conversation offers much to learn and much to feel.

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Cynthia Abulafia is an author, an academic, and a devotee of the Goddess. She is, in her words, committed to giving language to the divine feminine and restoring the experience of embodiment as the heart of spiritual practice. A longtime student and teacher of non-duality, she guides people through kundalini awakenings and spiritual emergence with grounded tools rooted in embodiment, breath, and the context of sacred texts and traditions. Her debut book, Embodying the Goddess: How to Awaken Curiosity and Reverence on the Spiritual Path, which was released in January 2026, was "inspired by 20 years of kundalini awakening, 20 years of study in non-duality traditions, and the work of the great philosopher Utpaladeva (900s CE)." In it, Cynthia challenges the “transcendence bias” of patriarchal spirituality and offers a path of radical integration. If you're curious about the divine feminine, the phenomenon of kundalini awakening, and about grounding nonduality in the apparent dualism of embodiment, this is the conversation for you.

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Rabbi Rami Shapiro is our returning champion. This is his third appearance on Spirit Matters (fourth if you count the time he interviewed me about Karmic Relief). Rami is a self-proclaimed “Jewish practitioner of perennial wisdom.” He was ordained by Hebrew Union College and earned a Ph.D. in religion from Union Graduate School. He’s the co-director of the One River Foundation, writes the column “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler” for Spirituality and Health magazine. And he’s written more than 40 books on religion and spirituality. They include: Holy Rascals – Advice for Spiritual Revolutionaries; The Tao of Solomon (which is about Ecclesiastes); Judaism Without Tribalism; and Zen Mind, Jewish Mind. And now he has another book to discuss with us: Love and the Bible: And the Meaning of Everything. We spoke about that book, about the place of love in our spiritual lives, about love, sex, and relationality in all mystical traditions ... and more.

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If you've ever contemplated the link between spirituality and music, or between consciousness and musical improvisation, this is the episode for you.

My guest is Ed Sarath, a longtime professor of music at the University of Michigan—specifically, in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation department at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. He is also director of the university’s Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies, and President of the International Society for Improvised Music. And he’s the author of scholarly books, including Music Theory Through Improvisation: A New Approach to Musicianship Training; Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness: Jazz as Integral Template for Music, Education, and Society; Black Music Matters: Jazz and the Transformation of Music Studies. He has also has published in numerous academic journals.

Ed designed the BFA program in Jazz and Contemplative Studies, which was the first to include a significant meditation and consciousness studies component. And he teaches classes such as Creativity, Consciousness and the Future; Black Music Matters; and Music School of the Future.

As a performer and composer, he has collaborated with leading artists across a wide range of genres. And as a teacher and public speaker, he has presented at music schools, conservatories, conferences, and symposia around the world. His latest passion is the International Consortium for Academic and Societal Transformation, which he founded.

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A Hindu Chaplain and a Buddhist Chaplain walk into the Spirit Matters podcast ... and talk about counseling today's generation of students.

Vineet Chander graduated from the George Washington University Law School, earned an MA in religious studies at Rutgers University, and a doctorate in education from New York University. He is now an assistant dean in the Office of Religious Life at Princeton, where he directs the Hindu Life Program and serves as Hindu Chaplain (the first full-time one in American higher education. The co-founder of the North American Hindu Chaplains Association, he is the co-author of two books: Hindu Chaplaincy and Hindu Approaches to Spiritual Care.

Monica Sanford holds a master of divinity degree from University of the West and a Ph.D. in practical theology from the Claremont School of Theology. She is also an ordained Buddhist lay minister in a Chan lineage and was trained as a Buddhist Chaplain. After leading the Multireligious Life Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology, she joined Harvard Divinity School as Buddhist Chaplain and Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry. Her book, Kalyāṇamitra: A Buddhist Model for Spiritual Care is the first textbook for Buddhist Chaplains.

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Stephan Bodianstudied and practiced for many years with masters in the nondual wisdom traditions of Zen, Dzogchen-Mahamudra, and Advaita Vedanta, and in 2001 received authorization to teach from Adyashanti. He offers webinars, retreats, videos, books, and spiritual counseling that, his words, “make profound spiritual teachings and practices accessible to a global audience.” He has taught at major retreat centers and other venues, and, since 2007, has led an annual, months-long intensive program in spiritual transformation known as the School for Awakening.

A trained psychotherapist as well, he has been a pioneer in the integration of nondual wisdom and Western Psychology and in the embodiment of awakened awareness in everyday life.

He also has a literary background, with a degree in English Literature from Columbia, graduate work at Stanford, and 10 years as editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal. His 1998 book, Meditation for Dummies, has sold nearly a half million copies. His other books include: Wake Up Now; Timeless Visions, Healing Voices; Beyond Mindfulness; and his latest, Infinite Awakening: A Guide to Nondual Wisdom and the Pathless Path, which is what we focus on in this conversation.

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Anantanand Rambachan is an eminent scholar of religion, currently Emeritus Professor of Religion at Saint Olaf College in Minnesota. He has also served as Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions at the University of Hamburg, in Germany, and as the Keating-Schachter World Wisdom Teacher-in-Residence at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. His scholarly interests include Advaita Vedānta, Hindu ethics, liberation theology, and interreligious dialogue. He has contributed to broadcasts, conferences, and publications too numerous to mention, and has been engaged in interreligious dialogue for more than 45 years, as a Hindu contributor and analyst (often the only Hindu contributor). Notably, he delivered the invocation address when the White House first celebrated the festival of Diwali in 2003, and he is now Co-President of Religions for Peace, the world’s largest global interfaith network.

He has also found time to write books. They include: Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Saṅkara; The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Authority of the Vedas; The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity; A Hindu Theology of Liberation: Not-Two is Not One; and his latest, which we talk about in this conversation, The Way of the Sant: Virtues for All Humanity.

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Deborah Santana is an author, activist, philanthropist, and business leader dedicated to peace, justice, and women’s empowerment. The founder of the nonprofit, Do a Little, she advocates for women and girls through global education and health initiatives and has worked with the Smithsonian Institution, The Children’s Defense Fund, and other important organizations. She has also produced five documentary films highlighting the work of non-profits in Africa. And she’s the author of two memoirs— something you can do only if you’ve lived an exceptionally interesting life. The first was Space Between the Stars, which was about coming of age as the child of a pioneering interracial couple. The other is a new release, Loving the Fire: Choosing Me, Finding Freedom, which is about the spiritual awakening and rebirth that followed her decision to leave her 34-year marriage to music legend Carlos Santana. Running through it all is a dedication to a multi-faceted spiritual path, which includes earning a masters degree in philosophy and religion with a concentration in women’s spirituality. It was a warm, delightful, and illuminating conversation.

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Jeremy David Engels is the liberal arts endowed Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, the co-founder of Yoga Lab, and a longtime mindfulness and yoga teacher. His academic research reimagines democracy as a communal practice rooted in care, deliberation, and shared responsibility, emphasizing mindfulness as a core civic skill. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, Yoga Journal, and Tricycle magazine. He has also earned the Karl Wallace Award, the New Investigator Award (from the National Communication Association), and Penn State’s Outstanding Tenure-line Faculty Teaching Award. And he is the author of six books, including Living Namaste: A Practical Guide to Yoga, Mindfulness, the Ethics of Oneness, and Building Community; and his latest, On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World. Our conversation focuses on the subject of that book, mindful democracy, and its implications for our current social and political conditions.

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Peter Russellis a long-time contributor to our understanding of spirituality, consciousness, meditation, and related matters, who believes "the critical challenge of today is freeing human thinking from the limited beliefs and attitudes that lie behind many of our problems — personal, social, and global.” He is a public speaker, a retreat leader, a teacher of online courses, and the author of a dozen books, including Letting Go of Nothing, The Global Brain, From Science to God, and his latest, How to Meditate Without Even Trying. We spoke mostly about meditation and the seemingly paradoxical principal of non-effort, and we also touched on the history and current status of spirituality in America, the intersection of science and spirituality, and other issues about which Peter offers valuable insight.

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Oneika Mays is a yoga and meditation teacher who was formerly the mindfulness coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York. With roots in Buddhist and Yogic teachings, she specializes in making mindfulness accessible to marginalized and excluded communities. She is the author of Sit with Me: A No-BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation, which explores metta (lovingkindness) as a tool for personal and collective liberation. We spoke about her experience teaching the incarcerated in rough institutions--and what she learned from them, as well the distinction between mindfulness and meditation, and the value of lovingkindness meditation. Make sure you stay tuned till the end, when Oneika leads us in a guided meditation.

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One of our favorite guests, ⁠Andrew Harvey⁠, returns to Spirit Matters. A leading voice for inclusive, universal, spiritual wisdom, Andrew is an internationally acclaimed writer, poet, translator and mystical teacher. He is the author of over 40 books, including ⁠Son of Man⁠, ⁠The Hope⁠, ⁠Love is Everything⁠, ⁠Turn me to Gold⁠, ⁠Engoldenment⁠, and ⁠Radical Regeneration ⁠(with Carolyn Baker). He has taught all over the world, led more than 40 courses for the Shift Network and is the founder of the ⁠Institute for Sacred Activism⁠. For 40 years his work has been dedicated to the birth of a divine humanity out of our contemporary global dark night through mystical self empowerment and sacredly inspired radical action. His latest book is T⁠he Magdalene Revolution⁠, which is what we’ll focus on today.

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Elaine Aron is a clinical and research psychologist who received her advanced training at Pacific Graduate Institute and the Jung Institute in San Francisco. Her research on sensory processing sensitivity and, along with her husband, Arthur Aron, the study of close relationships, is widely published in academic journals. She is best known as the world’s leading expert on the “Highly Sensitive Person” or HSP, a term she ascribed to a significant minority of people she discovered had the innate trait of high sensitivity. Her book , The Highly Sensitive Person, became an international bestseller, translated into 32 languages, and has been in print for nearly thirty years. She followed that up with other books based on her research on the subject: The Highly Sensitive Parent, The Highly Sensitive Person Workbook, The Highly Sensitive Person in Love, The Highly Sensitive Child, and Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person. She maintains a newsletter and other resources at her website. Her latest book, which we discuss (among other things) in this interview, is Spirituality Through a Highly Sensitive Lens: An Objective Look at Meditation Methods and Enlightenment. The conversation ranges widely; you don't have to be a Highly Sensitive Person to benefit from hearing it.

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Dean Radin is chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), an associated distinguished professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the cofounder and chairman of the biotech company, Cognigenics. His advanced degrees include an MS in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, and an honorary doctorate from the Swami Vivekananda University in Bangalore, India. He is the co-inventor on 12 patents, he’s given hundreds of presentations at prestigious institutions, and he is the author or coauthor of some 350 scientific and popular articles, four dozen book chapters, and nine books. His books include The Conscious Universe; Entangled Minds; and Real Magic. His latest is The Science of Magic: How the Mind Weaves the Fabric of Reality.

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Julie Nelson has been practicing Zen Buddhism for more than 20 years. Along the way, she was deemed accomplished enough and dedicated enough to become a teacher in the Soto tradition. Hence her other name, Seido Sensei. She has contributed articles to Tricycle magazine, writes on her own blog, and she’s the author of a book titled Practicing Safe Zen: Navigating the Pitfalls on the Road to Liberation. She is also an emeritus professor of economics from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has two kids and two grandkids, and lives in New Hampshire. In Julie's own words: “her spiritual home is the Greater Boston Zen Community, a group that experienced three waves of teacher abuses of power. She is deeply saddened when people, either in addition to or instead of realizing benefits from their work with a spiritual teacher, suffer great harm.” The central focus of this conversation is the vital importance ethical behavior among spiritual teachers, institutional accountability, and the protection of vulnerable students.

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Parvati Markus is a developmental editor who has been midwifing spiritually oriented non-fiction books and memoirs going back to her early friendship with the late spiritual leader Ram Dass and working with him on his iconic Be Here Now. Later books she either authored, coauthored, or edited include Dying to Know, Whisper in the Heart, Love Everyone, and the children's book, Isabella Castaspella. She has also worked in various capacities with spiritual organizations such as the Neem Karoli Baba ashram and temple in Taos, New Mexico, the Global Peace Initiative of Women, and the Love Serve Remember Foundation. The focus of our conversation is her new book, There is no Other: The Way to Harmony and Wholeness, which names Parvati as editor and Ram Dass as author. It's a collection of Ram Dass writings, assembled, organized, and introduced by Parvati, and it's billed as The Final Teachings from Beloved Spiritual Leader Ram Dass on Unity and Love.

https://www.parvatimarkus.com/

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