The MindThatEgo Podcast

Ricky Derisz

Welcome to the MindThatEgo Podcast — hosted by Ricky Derisz.

MindThatEgo's ethos is to explore nuances of mind, body and spirit by igniting challenging conversations with insightful thinkers, combined with deep reflection on subjective experience.

Vulnerability and authenticity are guaranteed as Ricky talks to psychologists, spiritualists, philosophers, scientists, friends and fellow human beings during his quest to understand key questions — what's the key to wellbeing? How can we reduce suffering? What tools are most useful in managing mental health?

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21 episodes
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Avg 1 hr 11 min
English

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S1 · E71
September 18 · 1 hr 22 min
#71: Synchronistic Knowledge and the Intuitive Intellect with Pawel Toloczko
Pawel Toloczko is a music producer from Poland. In the last 6 years, he has produced over 110 tracks arranged for transformative breathwork practices on his YouTube channel, Breathwork Beats by Touek. Pawel’s artistic mission is to help people rediscover a sense of soul and purpose through music, breathwork, and depth psychology, so they can live with more authenticity and meaning.Due to our shared interests, our connection isn’t surprising. What is surprising is how we met. While researching a James Hillman quote for one of his productions, Chat GPT recommended a video on The Soul’s Code. The man on the thumbnail was familiar. It was one of my videos, and I was familiar because Pawel and I lived in the same Berlin neighbourhood… in the same building, on the same floor, our front doors directly facing each other.We’d crossed paths and shared casual hellos, but one day, Pawel knocked on my door, told me what had happened, and our meaningful friendship began. What’s mind-blowing is that this captures the essence of my essay, Synchronicity as the Yoga of Absolute Knowledge. To honour the multiple synchronicities, we collaborated on an interpretation of that essay, with Pawel animating my narration with profound visual art and music (watch here)In this dialogue, Pawel and I speak from a perspective that views divine knowledge as intelligent, alive, and seeking discovery through the intuitive intellect. Synchronicity is key to that discovery. It transforms perception, and makes the pursuit of knowledge a transcendent, mystic experience. We discuss this in-depth and with great enthusiasm, visiting many unexpected and wonderful places along the way.
S1 · E70
September 2 · 1 hr 18 min
#70: The Convergence of Quantum Physics and Spirituality with Paul Howard
Paul Howard is an Irish filmmaker, producer and director whose career has spanned more than four decades. Our conversation explores subjects from his documentaries, Infinite Potential and Quantum Convergence, in particular the implications of quantum theory.Paul shares David Bohm’s theories of wholeness and the implicate order, quantum potential, and non-locality. We look at the fundamental nature of consciousness, retrocausality and non-linear time, past-life experiences and reincarnation, and why the founding fathers of quantum physics were inspired by non-dual traditions such as Advaita Vedanta.We consider implications on the subjective experience, questions of free will vs. determinism, and the power of the “observer effect” on manifest reality. We end by touching upon Paul’s upcoming documentary, On Dialogue, which explores Bohm’s creative approach to shared understanding.To purchase the documentaries, use the MindThatEgo affiliate links below: Infinite Potential Quantum Convergence
S1 · E69
August 19 · 1 hr 8 min
#69: Non-Dual Wisdom and the Path of Heart with Stephan Bodian
Stephan Bodian is a psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and pioneer in the integration of nonduality and Western psychology. He leads an annual spiritual transformation program, the School for Awakening, and is the author of several books, including Meditation for Dummies and Wake Up Now. Following our last interview five years ago, Stephan returns to discuss the themes in his latest book, Infinite Awakening: A Guide to Non-Dual Wisdom and the Pathless Path.We explore the difference between direct and progressive paths, the risk of ‘trying to be mindful,’ why sudden awakening requires lifelong integration, trauma work in the context of non-duality, the multiplicity of the self and “parts,”psychological pathways from IFS to Jung, and the necessity of an open heart and awakened ego.Going deeper into awakening territory, we address misconceptions about emptiness and detachment, love’s essential role in the yoga of relationships, Buddhist non-attachment vs. attachment theory, and the taboo of sexuality. What is the role of eros in non-duality? How do we confront the sexual shadow? And what can tantric approaches offer for healthy integration of sexual energy?
S1 · E68
August 5 · 1 hr 12 min
#68: Re-Souling Psychology via Art and Sacred Beauty with Nisha Gupta
Nisha Gupta PhD is a tenured psychology professor at the University of West Georgia, a trauma-informed relationship psychotherapist, phenomenological researcher, and artist. I discovered Nisha through her recent paper: Can Psychology Be An Art? A Journey from theHuman Sciences to the Psychological Humanities.Nisha explores what a more beautiful psychology might offer a wounded world. We discuss psychology’s origin as “the study of the soul”, beauty’s life-saving role in suicide prevention and offering hope amidst violence and injustice, and redemption amidst guilt and remorse.We look at artificial intelligence as a reckoning for humanity, reverence, grief, and rage as portals to God’s love, art’s role in transmuting both the sacred and the shadow, and why the anima, aesthetic sensibility, and divine feminine should sit on the throne of psychology’s future.
S1 · E67
July 20 · 1 hr 14 min
#67: Navigating the Pluripotency of Psychedelic Experiences with Eirini Argyri
Eirini K. Argyri is a researcher at the University of Exeter's Psychedelic Interdisciplinary Centre (EPIC) and research Associate with the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project. Her thesis developed the Ontologically Diversifying Experiences (ODE) framework, which examines pathways towards prosocial and holistic integration. We explore psychedelics’ developmental potential, their disruption to assumptions about selfhood, relationships, and reality, groundlessness and existential distress, boundlessness and experiences of unity, and the importance of trust architecture and access to educational resources.We also look at what contributes to healing communities, power dynamics and the risk of abuse, open-mindedness, agency, and cognitive liberty, and alternative modes of meaning-making, including the intuitive, the embodied, and the mythopoetic. Resources: Eirni's thesis.
S1 · E66
July 6 · 1 hr 28 min
#66: Mythos as the Scaffolding of Mad Worlds with Sabina Wantoch
Sabina Wantoch PhD is a researcher, facilitator, consultant, artist and animist. They are an Honorary Associate Professor at the Centre for Multidisciplinary & Intercultural Inquiry at University College London, a consultant in peer support for mental health with Imroc, and co-founder of The Mad Psychedelics Collaboratory. Their work centres around madness and its porous intersections with varieties of altered states, as well as entanglements between paradigms and conceptual structures. Our conversation covers intersubjectivity and shared perception, reducing the fear of madness, the reciprocal nature of mythos, the varieties of meaning and sense-making, and the importance of equanimity.Sabina then shares three symbols they’ve created; the Net, the Bog, and the Crossroads. Inspired by tarot, these accompany their PhD thesis and form part of Sabina’s upcoming deck that represents the mad experience.Link to Sabina's research.
S1 · E65
June 22 · 1 hr 26 min
#65: How the Philosophy of Subjective Experience Transforms Psychiatry with Jasper Feyaerts
Jasper Feyaerts is a philosopher and associate professor in clinical psychology at the University of Ghent, Belgium. He is co-founder of the Too Mad to be True conference, alongside previous guest, Wouter Kusters. Jasper’s research specialises phenomenology, self-disorders, psychosis, and delusions. Our conversation enquires into the elusive, difficult-to-define nature of selfhood. We begin comparing conventional psychiatric models of pathology with direct enquiry into the subjective experience. We look at the risks and the value of objectifying and conceptualising experience, interaction and knowledge as crucial to self-understanding, the self as it relates to so-called disorder, the view of Eastern spiritual traditions, such as Buddhist no-self, the illusion and necessity of control, flow and immersion versus self-reflection, primordial shame and ontological paranoia, the fear and joy of spontaneity, and what changes Jasper would like to see in the field of psychiatry.
S1 · E64
June 8 · 36 min
#64: Transrationality and the Paradox of Divine Madness
This episode features my talk from the 2024 edition of Too Mad to be True on the theme of The Paradoxes of Madness. In exploring Transrationality and the Paradox of Divine Madness, I use philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theory of language games to demonstrate how the models of reality directly influence how sanity and insanity is framed. If we change our model from conventional materialism to non-duality or pure consciousness, what changes? I explore the metaphor of “The Light,” that surfaces in all religious traditions and in the phrase en-light-en-ment; the pathologising of spiritual experiences; non-duality as the ultimate paradox; what we can learn from Zen koans and no-mind, the three forms of spiritual blindness; the need to synthesise multiple perspectives; and the role of trans-rationality in human development.
S1 · E63
May 25 · 1 hr 16 min
#63: Symbols, Psychosis, and Common Ground: A Lacan-Jung Dialogue with Stijn Vanheule
Stijn Vanheule is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and professor at Ghent University, Belgium. Our conversation was inspired by his most recent book, Why Psychosis Is Not So Crazy. Stijn overviews the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. He explains Lacan’s three registers: the Symbolic, the Imaginary, and the Real; psychosis as a confrontation with the Real; the security and limitations of symbolic convention; how words and stories structure reality; logic versus artistic coherence; and the existential value of paranoia. We compare Lacanian and Jungian approaches on subjects such as the paradox of archetypal and individual, personal myth, and self-knowledge as a never-ending process. Underlying our conversation is the common ground of viewing psychosis not as an illness, but in Stijn’s words: “the subjective manifestation of a struggle that touches upon the fundamental aspects of human existence."
S1 · E62
May 11 · 1 hr 11 min
#62: A Philosophy of Madness and Mysticism with Wouter Kusters
Wouter Kusters is a Dutch philosopher and linguist. He is the author of five books, including the award-winning A Philosophy of Madness, which was translated to English in 2020.His writing details his experiences of psychosis through a philosophical lens, including stays in psychiatric institutions and solitary confinement. Wouter is co-organiser of the Too Mad to Be True Conference which takes place in-person in Ghent, Belgium, and online on the 14th and 15th May.Our discussion explores the overlap of madness and mysticism and the limits of language, concepts, and the rational mind to describe or comprehend this vast terrain, which Wouter describes as “the black hole in which thought loses itself.” --- Details on the Too Mad to be True Conference: https://www.psychiatrieenfilosofie.nl/too-mad-to-be-true-iv
S1 · E61
Apr 23, 2025 · 1 hr 23 min
#61: The Art and Science of Lucid Dreaming with Fariba Bogzaran
Fariba Bogzaran is an artist, scientist and pioneer of dream studies. Between 1986 and 1989 she conducted scientific studies on lucid dreams at the Lucidity Institute at the Stanford Sleep Laboratory. Fariba mixes psychology, art, contemplative practices, shamanism, Taoism, and more. Her artwork is inspired by her deep connection with nature and her collaboration with the hypnagogic and lucid dreaming states of consciousness. She coined the term Lucid Art, which views art as an epistemology, or a way of knowing. Fariba is co-author of Integral Dreaming and Extraordinary Dreams and How to Work with Them. Our far reaching conversation explores themes in those books, including precognitive dreams, telepathic dreams, and mutual dreams. We dive deep into lucid dreams, including their multi-dimensionality and what Fariba calls hyperspace lucidity. We also look at how dreams inform déja vú, why physicists resonate with lucid art, experiences of light, voidness, and the non-dual, and why knowledge and realisations from dreams must translate to lucid waking.
S1 · E60
Apr 9, 2025 · 1 hr 12 min
#60: Indigenous Dreamscapes and Messages from Ancestors with Claudia Barfoot
Claudia Barfoot is a psychotherapist, Ancestral Healing Practitioner, and founder of the Land of Possible, which merges western theories of the psyche with indigenous systems of knowledge to facilitate growth and healing.Claudia’s cross-cultural approach combines psychology, psychoanalysis, dreamwork, sacred plant medicines, and ancestral traditions. She is informed by perspectives from the Toltec and Maya peoples of Mexico, as well as the teachings of the Mamos and Sagas from la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Her expansive wisdom provides an insightful perspective on dreams. We discuss: visitations from ancestors, emotional landscapes, the dream body, astral travel, visiting different realms,’ what colours represent, prophetic dreams, why certain traditions see dreams as shared experiences, how dreams prepare us for death, nightmares and encountering ‘dark beings,’ spiritual protection, dreams’ sacred communication, and much more.
S1 · E59
Mar 26, 2025 · 57 min
#59: Lucid Dreams and the Stages of Insight with Daniel Ingram
Daniel Ingram returns to the show following our first conversation, Awakening and the Search for Meaning. Daniel is best known for his cult classic Mastering The Core Teachings of the Buddha, within which he maps the stages of insight. He is also an emergency medicine physician and part of The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium (EPRC) which aims to integrate spiritual, mystical or energetic experiences into healthcare systems. Continuing the dream series, our conversation explores how Daniel integrates dreams into the stages of insight. He shares his definition of standard, symbolic, lucid, and hyper-lucid dreams. We look at a host of intriguing spiritual experiences within dreams, including: vivid sense perception, out of body experiences, guru transmission, kundalini awakenings, meditating in dreams, ego-transcendence, no-self dreams, and the continuum between dreams, imagination, and the dreamlike nature of “waking” reality.
S1 · E58
Mar 12, 2025 · 55 min
#58: Unlocking the Wisdom of Dreams with Lisa Marchiano
I’m joined by Lisa Marchiano, an award-winning author and certified Jungian analyst with a private practice in Philadelphia. Lisa is the author of Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself and The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire. Her latest book, Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams, is written with Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee, her fellow co-hosts of the popular depth psychology podcast, This Jungian Life. Our conversation focuses on making sense of dreams. Topics include: understanding imagery and symbols, unlocking meaning, working with setting, characters, and unfolding storylines, the dream ego’s perspective, “dreaming on” through active imagination, learning from emotions, encounters with the Self and the “God within,” dreams as life-changing religious experiences, and practical tips for dream recall. We join the conversation with Lisa and I discussing the application of the “keys” identified in Dreamwise… Lisa's Website. Dreamwise Book. This Jungian Life Podcast.
S1 · E57
Feb 26, 2025 · 1 hr 15 min
#57: UnShaming Through the Dreambody with David Bedrick
Welcome to episode 57 of the MindThatEgo Podcast and the first of a new series on dreams. I’m joined by David Bedrick, the founder of the Santa Fe Institute for Shame-based Studies, where he trains therapists, coaches and healers, and offers workshops for individuals. David graduated from the Process Work Institute and has been adjunct faculty for over 15 years. He studied under Arny Mindell, the founder of process-oriented psychology. Mindell was a student of Carl Jung, who integrated physics and the body into Jung’s work. David also taught psychology and philosophy courses at the University of Phoenix. His latest book, The Unshaming Way, is the focus of today’s conversation. Topics include: common misconceptions of shame, trauma-based and cultural origins of shame, the healing power of an unshaming witness, the intelligence of bodily experience, unshamed views of madness, depression and mental illness, expressing and learning from big emotions, the “dreambody” as a metaphor for inner processes, and why dreams naturally provide an unshamed view. Enjoy. ---David's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david.bedrick/?hl=enDavid's YouTube: https://youtube.com/@davidbedrick3872?si=o1WhsyD64qPnh4KT ---
S1 · E56
Nov 21, 2024 · 1 hr 19 min
#56: The Power of Meaningful Coincidences with Bernie Beitman and Joanna Bauer-Savage
Episode 56 of the MindThatEgo Podcast features a panel discussion on synchronicity with Bernie Beitman, Joanna Bauer-Savage, and myself, which took place in early November in Berlin. To evoke meaningful coincidences, we asked the audience to contribute questions to a lucky dip. The resulting conversation is nuanced and diverse, including practical guidance and philosophical frameworks. We discuss the relationship between intuition and coincidence, feeling the pain of a loved one at a distance, the nature of the higher Self revealed in dreams and synchronicities, discerning when to follow signs and when to step back, magical thinking and confirmation bias vs. true synchronicity, and contemplations of the “higher order” of meaning. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy!
S1 · E55
Oct 17, 2024 · 1 hr 4 min
#55: Undreaming Wetiko: Is Humanity Under the Spell of a Mind Virus? with Paul Levy
Paul Levy is a creative artist, a pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence, and a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for more than 35 years. He is the founder of the Awaken in the Dream Community and the author of several books, including The Quantum Revelation and Undreaming Wetiko. Our conversation dives into the murky depths of the so-called mind virus popularized by Indigenous author Jack Forbes, who in his book Columbus and Other Cannibals, refers to wetiko as “the sickness of exploitation.” Paul is a gifted oracle whose description of subtle and hidden forces of wetiko illuminates how the mind virus influences our world, relationships, and inner processes. Together, we explore how our quantum reality mirrors a waking dream, and how the universe communicates through symbols. We discuss synchronicity, shadow projection, archetypal patterns, and four-valued logic or paradoxical thinking. Paul also shares profound insights on awakening from mass hypnosis, the dangers of totalitarian psychosis, and the weaponization of technology. Plus, why critical thinking and our creative spirit is the ultimate superpower in undreaming wetiko and navigating these turbulent times. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources: Awakening in the Dream.
S1 · E54
Oct 3, 2024 · 49 min
#54: Practicing Self-Compassion to Past, Present, and Future You (with Guided Meditation)
Welcome to episode 54 of the MindThatEgo Podcast. This episode features my presentation, Quantum Self-Compassion, for the Mystics and Scientists Conference in April 2024. The theme was Love, Forgiveness, and Compassion: Where Spirituality Meets Science. The first half of the talk introduces self-compassion as a thread across past, present, and future. I share common barriers to self-compassion, uncover misconceptions, and look at the damage of self-dis-compassion, which includes self-rejection, self-judgment, and self-criticism. I introduce the notion of the True Self as outside of time and the Source of compassion, love, forgiveness, and higher qualities we can extend toward the small self or Ego. To bring these insights to life, this is followed by a guided meditation, through which you will, hopefully, get an embodied sense of the nature of self-compassion. Just a reminder to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy!
S1 · E53
Sep 19, 2024 · 1 hr 26 min
#53: Synchronicity: Reason, Revelation, and Religious Implications with Roderick Main
Welcome to episode 53 of the MindThatEgo Podcast. Roderick Main works at the University of Essex, where he is Professor in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies and Director of the Centre for Myth Studies. His research focuses on religion, mythology, literature, and, of course, synchronicity. His books include Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal, The Rupture of Time, Breaking the Spell of Disenchantment, and Revelations of Chance. He is also a fellow co-author on the Playful Universe. To honor the purpose of that book, I was keen to approach synchronicity firstly from Roderick’s personal experience, understanding how he interprets and unpacks their meaning, before moving into theoretical explanations. The result is a dialogue that provides practical ways to participate with synchronistic events, such as deciphering symbols and intuitively linking relevant associations. We look at different forms of synchronicity, including the personal, archetypal, and collective, and the nuances of discernment. How do you tell genuine synchronicity from delusions or magical thinking? What are pathologies of meaning or dark synchronicities? What are the religious and philosophical implications? And what truly is the power of myth? All that, and more, coming up. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Roderick's Bio The Playful Universe: Synchronicity and the Nature of Consciousness (Amazon).
S1 · E52
Sep 5, 2024 · 58 min
#52: Depression, Individuation, and the Alchemy of Faith with Jane Clapp
Welcome to episode 52 of the MindThatEgo Podcast. Jane Clapp returns to the show to explore depression in the context of the alchemical stages of psychological development or individuation. Jane is a distinguished Jungian analyst who formed Jungian somatics from over 20 years of clinical experience. Exploring the interplay of body and psyche, she specializes in developmental and complex trauma through a mythological and embodied lens. Our dialogue covers how developmental trauma blocks the psyche’s self-regulating function, anti-life energy and the collective shadow, the spiritual battle of becoming, self-deceit and identification with suffering, the need for support, anchoring into glimmers of hope, finding positive symbols in dreams and synchronicities, and prayer and surrender as powerful allies in humility, faith, and relationship to a higher power. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources: Jane's Website. Jane's Instagram.

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