Spirit Gym with Paul Chek

If someone asked you about your personal cosmology — who are you, why are you here and what is your role on our planet — what would you tell them? Or, more to the point, could you really answer the question?
For best-selling author Mark Gober, it took years for him to understand the huge gap between following a personal cosmology that was nihilistic, random, superficial and meaningless and living an intentional one that embraces Spirit and the divine in all of us. 
A decade passed before Mark was ready for his first plant medicine ceremony, and the healing work he did on developing his personal cosmology made all of the difference in creating a positive, intimate experience that keeps on delivering insights. 
Join Mark and Paul on a journey of discovery and lasting growth with help from plant medicines and learn why a personal cosmology matters this week on Spirit Gym.
Check out Mark and his work on his website and on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, YouTube and Telegram.
Timestamps
3:46 Does our intellect or something in our biology block us being receptive to our natural state, especially as we age?
12:23 How plant medicines reconnect us to the various aspects of ourselves.
15:20 Amnesia is built into the human experience (with a large dose of ignorance thrown in).
22:27 Ibogaine: A medicine that loves through truth, even when it is painful.
31:12 Mark meets ibogaine.
44:00 It took a decade for Mark to be ready for his first plant medicine ceremony.
46:55 Mark’s four intentions going into his first plant medicine ceremony.
1:05:31 Self-betrayal: A form of self-loathing that our society trains us to do.
1:09:35 Ancestral trauma, underlying terror and catastrophic thinking.
1:17:27 “Whenever we heal for ourselves, we’re really healing for our family.”
1:26:54 The purpose of existence and authenticity is the only game in town.
1:32:07 A sign Mark was tapping into his divine guidance before his plant medicine ceremony: Writing a book about it.
Resources
An End to the Upside Down Cosmos by Mark Gober
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
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Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
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If you’re a parent, do you remember one day when you had fun with your kids doing things that weren’t tied down to going on a (rare) yearly vacation or a holiday gathering?
Unfortunately, most parents are living the lives of event planners, carting their kids from home to school, birthday parties, recitals, large family gatherings and too many youth sports and hardly anyone is having any fun (or getting much sleep).
Do you want to parent your kids in a more holistic, connected way that teaches them how to be their best selves and allows you to live your best life too? Robyn and Victor Robledo, the nomads with a purpose who raised their five kids on the road, will show you how this week on Spirit Gym.
Learn more about Robyn, Victor and their family at the Nomads With a Purpose website and Robyn’s website. Check out their adventures on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Contact Victor and Robyn via email for information about their services.
Timestamps
4:39 Building a business as a couple at age 20 on the fly and figuring it out.
8:11 Victor’s extreme adrenal fatigue and subsequent panic attack changed everything.
16:15 Victor’s collision course with trauma.
20:46 Leaving Southern California to explore the world.
29:24 Two parents and five kids living on the road on about 150 euros ($174) a day.
32:37 Paul’s collision course with seasonal affective disorder.
39:08 There's something amazing about waking up and choosing what you want to do today, not what you have to do.
47:53 Are you so afraid of your kids that they will reject you?
55:12 “There’s no self-growth in me sitting on the sidelines of another soccer game.”
1:04:54 What started as homeschooling eventually became unschooling.
1:13:09 Robyn and Victor raised a family of seven on roughly $4,000 per month while living on the road.
1:32:39 The Five Pillars of healthy living Robyn and Victor have used to build their family.
Resources
The Road Less Traveled: Why You Shouldn’t Give Up Your Comfy Couch, Hot Showers and Steady Paycheck by Robyn Robledo
Gabriela Robledo’s TEDx Talk on How to Find Purpose and Personal Power
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

When many of you were very young, you learned about right versus wrong sitting in Sunday School being taught the Parables of Jesus. Unfortunately, that’s often where the learning stopped…
Discover how reviewing the Parables from an adult perspective can be a transformative experience with the help of Sean O’Laoire this week on Spirit Gym.
Learn more about Sean at his Spirits in Spacesuits website. Find him on social media via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. 
Timestamps
8:04 Defining Parables.
9:42 The difference between knowledge and wisdom.
16:21 Jesus: The master of exaggeration.
23:21 The master and the servant motif in Parables.
26:16 The real lesson behind the Prodigal Son Parable.
30:48 The Proverb (ancient words).
48:32 “Every piece that’s necessary is there and every piece that’s there is necessary.”
56:53 The soul.
1:00:32 What’s your personal epistemology?
1:11:00 The Cross according to Rudolf Steiner.
1:21:40 “There is no situation you cannot reconfigure in order to become a deeply spiritual person.”
1:26:10 Solving problems from a deeper meta-perspective.
1:38:54 Religion: The training wheels for spirituality.
1:45:52 Do you live in gratitude?
2:01:10 Sean closes the conversation with a song.
Resources
Setting God Free: Moving Beyond the Caricature We've Created in Our Own Image by Sean O’Laoire
Jesus and Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings by Martin Aronson
The cockle (weed)
Ilya Progogine’s concept of dissipative structures 
Paul’s podcast conversation with Sayer Ji
How to Understand Your Bible by Manly P. Hall
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Does it seem to you as if today’s kids are not as smart and lacking in common sense than previous generations? You’re not imagining things…
The current focus on education — treating the human brain like a computer and using artificial intelligence (AI) to feed it knowledge — may be great for sitting in front of a screen playing video games, but not so much on real learning and creativity, the one true superpower every human being has.
Educator Dr. Jared Horvath explains why today’s kids are cognitively declining and describes what we can do to reverse that downward trend this week on Spirit Gym.
Learn more about Jared at his LME Global website and on social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Timestamps
8:05 Pursuing the science of learning.
13:20 “The brain is not a computer, and you are not your brain.”
24:49 Our kids are losing their conceptual natures, and are cognitively declining.
27:56 Humanity’s greatest superpower.
32:32 The three stages of creativity.
35:30 Why are kids living East Asian countries smarter and more creative than those in America?
50:01 Why teachers don’t have a say in the education process.
58:20 Focusing on proximal goals versus distal goals.
1:09:29 Do you really understand the difference between opinions and knowledge?
1:16:01 AI falsely assumes human thought is best represented in speech.
1:21:00 The reification of education.
1:28:09 When Paul was a child, he dreamed of becoming a bank robber.
1:35:42 The breadth of your knowledge is only as good as the depth of it, which may explain why education is broken.
1:42:32 The importance of mastery.
1:53:07 Is it really cheaper for schools to divest from digital tech for physical education and the arts?
2:02:28 Why it is NOT important for kids to be taught how to use AI.
2:16:01 Jared’s real problem with AI, aside from the fact that it does nothing: Its intellectual heritage is hidden.
2:21:08 The tech outsourcing of basic parenting.
Resources
The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids’ Learning — And How To Help Them Thrive Again by Dr. Jared Horvath
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Did you know the comic book characters and their stories that are adapted into very successful books, TV shows and movies could teach you as much about myth as the work of Joseph Campbell?
Filmmaker and comic book writer B. Earl describes how his deep love for comics, mythology and the Tarot led him on a Fool’s Journey away from doing the safe thing — studying biochemistry — to work on Spider-Man comics, make movies and share the lessons he learned by following the road less traveled this week on Spirit Gym.
Discover more about B. Earl on his Weirdbunch Studio website and on Instagram, Substack and LinkedIn. Read his chapter in the book, Depth Psychology, Myth and Artificial Intelligence: Soul and the Machine, edited by Jason Batt and Jonathan Erickson. Check out his crowdfunded Fangbanger: SUPERPOSITION Anthology on Zoop.
Timestamps
7:44 “I found my voice and my own ideas through a mixture of mythology and comic books.”
11:09 Whose dream wins out to study biochemistry or telling stories?
17:53 B. Earl’s Hero’s Journey begins with a call from movie producer Larry Cohen.
28:03 The Tarot helps B. Earl achieve sobriety when he needed it.
33:45 The libido as life force energy.
37:46 How do we learn to process, use and embrace the 72 demons of Solomon?
49:13 The commercialization of Hip Hop.
53:35 Comics: The most powerful medium and the additive version of the creative process.
1:00:05 Can you decode the symbolism hiding in plain sight?
1:07:15 How much of your consciousness is tied up in your ego?
1:16:44 The Fool’s Journey.
1:26:40 Different Tarot card decks, different insights.
1:35:00 The forced redundancy of us in AI.
1:41:07 The magic of storytelling that conveys deeper truths and native myths in B. Earl’s Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
1:55:55 Conflict and forgiveness are necessary for us to live and grow.
Resources
Watch B. Earl talk about The Poetry of Death during the recent Soul and the Machine webinar on the International Society of Mythology website
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.