Bryn Edwards at The WA Real

#178 Democracy 2.0: Flux – Daithi Gleeson

What would an upgrade to our current democracy actually look like? And how would democracy 2.0 actually work?

That's exactly what I discussed with Daithi Gleeson, member of the Flux Party – political party and movement that is drawing on technology to put forward an upgrade to our democratic system.  

In this discussion, Daithi gives us a history of our democracy through today with key suggestions of how we can upgrade to make it work for us better in the present day.

Daithi and I about went into the current state of our individual and collective capability to be effective citizens in Democracy 2.0

Daithi is superbly articulate which makes this a very accessible conversation. It is also fascinating because all too often political discussions focus on the differences between parties and policies rather than on the actual nature of the underlying system and its ability to serve us the citizens and meet the complexity of the current day.  

#177 Vision Quests and Nature – Claire Vanderplank

This week I had a fascinating conversation about all that we can learn from being in nature with Claire Vanderplank.

Claire, through her company, Weapons of Mass Creation provides a vision quest service here in Western Australia.

During this conversation, we really dived into what exactly is a vision quest and in particular the role of nature and all that we can learn from nature in relation to transition within our own systems and community.

This is a super conversation with a lady who has spent a lot of time solo by herself out in nature; and you can really tell that there's a lot of depth of character that she's drawing on throughout the podcast.

#176 The Electric Universe - Wallace Thornhill

This week I had a great conversation about science, the natural beauty and purity of science and scientific investigation with Wallace Thornhill, Vice President of the Thunderbolts Project.

Wallace shares his paradigm changing Electrical Universe theory.

What makes this so interesting is that Wallace, and others, have conducted their research and exploration separate from the university infrastructure.

As well as expanding your understanding of the fabric of the universe, hopefully from this conversation you will be inspired to rethink your own relationship with science and consider your own scientific exploration and experimentation to further your own horizons rather than abrogating to University Scientists.

#175 Discerning Media Consumption – Nic Hayes

This week I welcomed back Nick Hayes, Managing Director of Media Stable, to discuss his observations across the media landscape and media consumption over the last six to nine months during this changeable period.

Nick explains is that, as he predicted in the last podcast, that there's been a real move back to traditional forms of media, in particular radio.  

We really had a great discussion about becoming more discerning in our media consumption and sense making, particularly recognising the leanings, particularly the political orientation, of the sources that you're listening to. We also talked about the pitfalls of going to social media as a source of news and also the concept of consuming too much information.

Nick is really articulate and has a great sense of humour. He brings a very grounded and grown up perspective to the topic of news and media in general.

#174 Exploring our Inner World: Hearing Voices - Johanna Badcock

Take a deeper refection into our interior subjective human experience by considering auditory hallucinations, in particular hearing voices, with Johanna Babcock, Adjunct Professor at UWA School of Psychological Sciences, and also one of the founders of Perth Voices Clinic.

Surrounded in cultural interpretation, what becomes more and more apparent in this conversation is the fact that hearing voices is not quite what you think - it's very subjective to an individual and a lot more common than one might expect.

We also dive into the link with loneliness to mental health and the onus on those of us who are not lonely to open the door to those who are for the sake of a healthy society.

Why would you listen to this conversation? Because it’s a fascinating exploration into holding space for the legitimacy of your interior personal experiences. It highlights how much there is to explore and just how normal ‘things we don’t necessarily feel comfortable talking about’ really are.

#173 Medicinal Mushrooms – Graham Upson

Take a deep dive into incredible world and healing power of Medicinal Mushrooms with Graham Upson of Touchwood Mushroom Farm.

With over 45 years of mushroom growing experience, Graham is WA’s leading expert in this field. He shares some of his stories learning how to grow and think like a mushroom as well as the businesses he’s developed along the way. You will soon begin to appreciate just how complex and precise growing mushrooms is.

Graham then talks about the main medicinal mushrooms that he supplies and their properties - lion’s mane, turkey tail, cordyceps, chaga, reishi, maitake and shiitake.

This is a fascinating conversation; Graham is a real font of knowledge in this field.

As the listener, you will soon realise that there's so much more to learn and explore when it comes to mushrooms.

 

https://www.touchwoodmushrooms.com/

#172 WA Mental Health: What Happened to you? – Bill Saunders

This week I had the great pleasure of welcoming back Bill Saunders, one of Perth’s leading clinical psychologist who's recently come out of retirement.

Through Bill’s research for his new book, he’s really dived into the true reliability and robustness of the underlying psychiatric framework and treatment protocols that shape the mental health space.

The picture that soon emerges is one that may well have lost its way scientifically becoming too complex, overly industrially influenced and separated too far from the true nature of the human journey.

Bill suggests that rather than asking ‘what's wrong with a client?’  the better starting point is to ask ‘what has happened to you?’ because more often than not the source of the majority of mental health issues originated from an early traumatic event in childhood.

This is a super engaging and detailed conversation with someone with over 40+ years of clinical practice and research experience.

If you or a loved one has any mental health issues or is receiving treatment – particularly medical drugs – then I would strongly recommend taking this on board.  

#171 Dreams: Your connection to psyche – Debbie Ford

Dreams - we all have them, whether wild or wacky, recurring nightmares, vividly exciting or highly sexual.

But how often do you pay attention to your dream? How often do you legitimise them? How often you actually talk about them and share them?

This week it was absolute pleasure to talk to Debbie Ford, dream therapy psychotherapist, about this rich source of connection to psyche

Debbie explains what dreams are, their underlying dynamics and mechanics and just how beautifully subjective they are in their very essence. She gives an insight into how she works with clients and their dreams and provides some wonderful examples to really set some context of how we can begin to work with our own dreams.

Fascinatingly, we also discussed on a bigger level of what she's beginning to see across her client’s and their dreams at this time in this COVID disrupted time – messages from the collective psyche.

This is a truly subtle, beautiful, yet really powerful conversation with a wonderful lady who is really amazing at holding space for something that our own ego so often sweeps over or puts to one side.

#170 Navigating a Spiritual Emergency – Jules Evans

While more of us are becoming aware of the idea of spiritual awakening, the arising question is what is the actual experience of a spiritual awakening actually like?

Many may have a preconception that this is a lovely serene experience, however the truth of the matter is often something very different and scary, which is where the term ‘Spiritual Emergency has come from’.

This week had the great privilege of exploring the topic of spiritual emergencies with Jules Evans, practical philosopher and co-editor of the book Breaking Open, which documents real cases of individual spiritual emergencies.

In this conversation, Jules provides some of the characteristics and surrounding mechanics and dynamics of spiritual emergencies, as well as the impacts.

In an uncertain and rapidly changing world that can so easily trigger a deep change within us set against a noticeable increase in an uptake of differing healing modalities, this is an important conversation to normalise and map out what exactly is happening during these deeply subjective experiences.

FURTHER NOTE: - If you listen to this podcast, and you resonate with the contents based on your own experience, and would be willing to share and participate in a WA based research study to deepen our understanding of these experiences - then please, reach out because we'd like to hear about your spiritual emergency experience.

#169 The Greater Power of Sound – Christine Morrison

This week, I had the great pleasure of speaking to Christine Morrison, WA based musician, composer, music alchemist and sound healer.

While I featured guests of a similar ilk previously on the podcast, what makes this really different is the fact that over the last four months I myself have been working with Christine to explore sound for myself. So rather than this being a theoretical discussion, it's very much starts off as an experiential discussion with Christine providing deeper context. This includes how I’ve myself now use sound to connect into my body and how that has led to a number of experiences which I could say rival certain psychedelic experiences.

From that Christine talks about how her work with sound came into her life – which is something she didn't really want to start with but she shares her process of letting go  and answering the call.

Christine is a super grounded lady with a deep history of working with sounds that includes indigenous links which really sets the tone for this discussion about using sound as a modality to really bring us back into our body at a time when it's easy to be just swept up and swept away by our minds.