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PODCAST

Awareness Explorers

Jonathan Robinson & Brian Tom O"Connor

If you want to awaken peace and love in daily life, pure awareness is always available as the background of all experience. Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O"Connor explore ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

religion & spirituality spirituality

All Episodes

48:23

204: Relationship, Awakening, and MDMA

Awareness Explorers ·

2026/01/16

In this episode we explore relationships as a path to awakening that reveals obstacles to love, and how MDMA can serve as a catalyst to open-heartedness. The book we discussed in this episode is Ecstasy for Couples: How MDMA Therapy Can Create More Love and Less Conflict In Your Relationship To learn more about Ecstasy for Couples, please visit: https://xtcforcouples.net/ For more information about the amygdala, which was mentioned in this episode:

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01:06:07

203: Kate Alvo, Guest Explorer on Tension and Trauma...

Awareness Explorers ·

2026/01/02

In this episode, we talk to Kate Alvo about Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) how they can release tension held in the body from stress and from traumas of the past, as well as how releasing stored tension naturally quiets the mind, offering a physical pathway to presence that can facilitate awakening. • Includes a guided meditation to help listeners tune into their bodies and notice direct present-moment experience without judgement. To learn more about Kate Alvo, please visit:

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01:04:56

202: The Future of Transformational Technologies

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/12/19

In this episode, we explore how technology is accelerating human transformation and consciousness, and we outline the five key areas that are driving this shift: psychedelics, nootropics, gadgets, new techniques, and AI coaching. • Includes a guided meditation leading us to recall a specific, highly awakened or peaceful experience and how to amplify the feeling with deep breaths and visualization. Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our

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01:06:18

201: Amy Islip, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/12/05

In this episode we talk to Amy Islip about her experiences with guided MDMA therapy, the profound spiritual awakening that ensued, and the resulting embodiment of spacious, open-hearted, love. • Includes a guided meditation leading us first, to rest in what is, free from stories and plans, allowing our bodies to soften, dissolve, and expand, and then, leading us to draw that expansiveness back into our bodies, minds, and the roles we play in everyday life. To learn more about Amy Islip, please

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56:53

200: Recurring Themes

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/11/21

In this episode, we respond to ChatGPT's summary of the top 15 recurring themes throughout the 200 episodes of Awareness Explorers to date, and elaborate on the ways they point to the realization of our true nature as infinite awareness. • Includes a list of Brian's Key Principles of Awareness, which can serve as a guided meditation. And here is a link to Pamela Wilson's "Cave of the Heart" meditation that we talked about in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ONEN_h__8 Don't forget to

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47:01

199: Guru Pros and Cons

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/11/07

In this episode we discuss gurus and spiritual teachers and explore the potential benefits as well as the potential risks involved in following a guru. • Includes a guided meditation leading us toward finding our inner guru and asking a deep personal question. Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature. To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit:

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54:50

198: Beth Miller, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/10/24

In this episode we talk with Beth Miller, author of Awakening is Not for the Faint of Heart: Risk Everything for Love, about her profound shift in consciousness, the integration of therapy and spirituality, and insights from long COVID, which was ultimately a gift, providing deep healing and spiritual growth, and requiring intense presence, surrender, and trust in life. To learn more about Beth Miller, please visit: BethMillerPhD.com https://www.bethMillerphd.com/ Or email her at

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56:40

197: Michael McCord, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/10/10

In this episode we talk to Michael McCord, president of San Francisco Zen Center, on bringing Zen practices into daily life and work, and how enlightenment is seen as an ongoing process of increasing awareness, not a fixed end state to achieve. • Includes a guided meditation introducing the Zen practice of breath counting. To learn more about Michael McCord, please visit these San Franciso Zen Center pages: https://www.sfzc.org/

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57:14

196: Stephen Zerfas, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/09/26

In this episode we talk to Stephen Zerfas, co-founder of Jhourney, which offers retreats facilitating rapid access to jhana meditation states, described as positive feedback loops between attention and emotion, offering profound states of gratitude, peace and non-duality. • Includes a guided meditation focusing on relaxing the body while turning our attention to positive concepts such as gratitude and wishing for the well-being of all others. To learn more about Stephen Zerfas, please visit:

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41:39

195: How to Be with Bad News

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/09/12

In this episode we discuss strategies for handling bad news as an awakening person, balancing awareness and action.. • Includes a guided meditation addressing the dichotomy between taking action and acceptance, and how to bring these two seeming opposites into a workable equilibrium. Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature. NEWS: Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts on Goodpods: # 6 in the Top 100

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42:59

194: Embracing the Middle Way

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/08/29

In this episode we discuss the concept of the Middle Way and explore how to move beyond polarities in spiritual practice and daily life, thus finding a balance between extremes and recognizing the interconnectedness of all things. • Includes a guided meditation in which we bring two opposite energies together to sense how they are intertwined and to feel a balance and a gentle equilibrium as we use breath to weave the two together. Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the

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54:41

193: Kat van Oudheusden, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/08/15

In this episode, we talk to Kat (Katrijn) van Oudheusden, author of Seeing No-Self, and Beyond Illusion, about discovering the illusion of separation, and her set of essential inquiries that use empirical investigation of direct experience to point to our true nature. To learn more about Kat van Oudheusden, please visit: https://katoudheusden.com/ Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature. NEWS: Awareness Explorers has made

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58:19

192: Samuel Jacob, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/08/01

In this episode we talk to Samuel Jacob, a contemporary spiritual teacher specializing in radical self-inquiry. He emphasizes the immediate availability of awareness, completeness, and happiness in the present moment. • Includes a guided meditation focusing on being aware that all appearances arise “here” without effort, and emphasizing the relaxation of any attempt to arrive here, which is where the I, awareness is. To learn more about Samuel Jacob, please visit: https://www.samueljacob.org/ or on

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41:20

191: Inward and Outward Paths

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/07/18

In this episode we explore the concepts of the inward and outward facing paths. They are presented as different approaches in various traditions that, if pursued to their core, eventually arrive at a direct experience of a unified life. • Includes a guided meditation that extends the ancient neti neti practice of excluding all concepts of what you conceive yourself to be, and then re-including all so-called outer experience, thereby seeing that all is awareness and not separate from your true self

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58:27

190: John Travis, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/07/04

In this episode, we interview John Travis, founding teacher of Mountain Stream Meditation Center, exploring his spiritual journey and teachings, and his emphasis on the importance of integrating mind, heart, and body in spiritual practice. • Includes a guided meditation grounding attention in the body and sense perceptions as a pathway inward to the recognition of awareness as encompassing everything, thus breaking the illusion of separateness. To learn more about John Travis, please visit:

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49:33

189: Trauma and Awakening

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/06/20

In this episode, we discuss the relationship between trauma and spiritual awakening, and how trauma can not only obscure awareness but can also catalyze awakening. We also describe some effective trauma healing approaches. • Includes a guided meditation helping us to see an upsetting incident from the past within the larger peaceful space of pure awareness, which is unshaken by traumatic experience, and which holds and supports everything. The YouTube playlist mentioned in this episode: Spiritual

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45:45

188: Exploring Intuition

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/06/06

In this episode we discuss intuition, its nature, how to access it, and its relationship to awakening. • Includes a guided meditation helping you to cultivate the open receptivity required for intuition. Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature. NEWS: Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts on Goodpods: # 5 in the Top 100 awakening All time chart # 5 in the Top 100 joy All time chart # 5 in the Top

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55:16

187: Robert Rugg, Guest Explorer

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/05/23

In this episode we talk with Robert Rugg, author of Awakening to Effortless Being: Realizing Your Infinite Self, about his spiritual journey, his teachings on effortless being, his approach to self-realization, and how to incorporate the principles of wholeness into daily life and interactions with others • Includes a guided meditation inviting us to rest in the stillness, the silence, the presence, the space of beingness, the aliveness which has always been here, and which is noticing and allowing

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48:04

186: Rituals

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/05/09

In this episode we explore the topic of rituals and their impact on experiencing deeper peace, love, and joy in life. • Includes a guided meditation in which we reflect on past meaningful ritual experiences, imagine new possibilities for personal rituals, and consider timing and context for implementing new rituals. Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature. NEWS: Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts

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01:46:25

185: Pernille and Todd Lent Damore, Guest Explorers

Awareness Explorers ·

2025/04/25

In this episode we talk to Pernille and Todd Lent Damore, founders of the Awakening Curriculum, about the Wheel of Identification, which is their framing of the Ten Buddhist Fetters, as well as practical applications to wake up moment to moment in the midst of everyday life. Their focus is on direct experience with no resistance and no labels. • Includes a guided meditation exploring the felt sense of where “you” are located, by exploring where it seems to be showing up within the space of our

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