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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Next Level Soul podcast, where we ask

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the big questions about life. Why are we here? Is

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this all? There? Is? What is my soul's mission? We

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attempt to answer those questions and more by bringing you

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raw and inspiring conversations with some of the most fascinating

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and thought provoking guests on the planet. Today, I am

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your host, Alex Ferrari. Now, before we dive into today's conversation,

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I want to invite you to experience something truly transformative.

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from around the world can awaken, heal, and expand We've

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This isn't just content, it's a calling. Whether you're exploring

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just craving something real in a noisy world, Next Level

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you're ready to go deeper, head over to Next levelsoul

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dot tv and start streaming your awakening. Now let's begin

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today's episode. Disclaimer. The views and opinions expressed in this

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podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily

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reflect the views or positions of the show, its host

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or any of the companies they represent. Today we have

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Emily Benington on the show. She is both a student

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and teacher of contemplative practices for both secular and spiritual audiences.

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Her dedication to a Course in Miracles comes from the

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extraordinary changes in her own life as a result of

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applying its teachings. And Emily and I sat down and

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had a wonderful conversation about of course in Miracles, life,

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finding your spirituality, finding your intermission, and so much more.

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So let's dive in. I like to welcome to the show,

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Emily Bennington. How are you doing, Emily, I'm doing well.

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Speaker 2: Thanks thanks for having me on your show.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the show. I

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truly appreciate it. I wanted you on the show because

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we're going to talk about a course in Miracles, and

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I know of it. I've I've heard things about it,

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but I've really never delved into it very deeply. So,

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but before we get into the small book that is

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called The Course of Miracles, not two thousand pages, just

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a few, it's a few two thousand pages, tell me

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about your origin story. How did you get into the

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line of work that you're doing.

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Speaker 2: Well. Origin stories are always rather lengthy, so I will

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keep mine as short as possible. Sure, sometime around twenty ten,

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I had a five year old son, and I I

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realized that the way I was behaving was making him sad,

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and he actually said, Mommy, you make me sad, and

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so I realized brutal. So brutal. Kids are so honest,

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aren't they. I was just more impatient with him than

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I wanted to be. And so I realized in that moment,

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when your five year old says that you make them sad,

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like you really do need to change something about yourself.

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And so that was kind of my wake up moment.

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I was like, something in me needs to change, and

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so I started looking around for what could I do

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to transform myself so that I could show up better

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for the people in my life. And that led me

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on a spiritual quest. I found a course in miracles,

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And almost immediately after finding the course, I knew that

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this was my path. I knew that this was truth.

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I had grown up in a traditionally Christian home, but

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I had left traditional Christianity many years ago. But when

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I opened this book, I knew it was the wisest

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thing that I had ever read. And I also knew

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that it was Jesus. I knew that it was the

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Jesus that I loved, the wisdom teacher Jesus. And so

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when I found the course, I really dove into it.

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And everyone in my family after that was like, we

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don't know what you're studying. We don't even want to know.

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That book looks very intimidating, but keep doing it because

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you are a different person. I was far more loving

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and far more kind and far more patient with everyone

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in my life, not just my children. And then shortly thereafter,

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this was about twenty fourteen. Shortly after about that was

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about three years into my study of the course, all

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of a sudden I heard this like booming voice in

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my head and it said teach, I mean like really loud,

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and I couldn't get rid of it. It was just

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say one word, and it was just teaching and it

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was very loud, and so I knew at that point

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I was supposed to teach the course. I had been

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a mindfulness trainer, corporate mindfulness trainer up to that point.

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Was not looking to leave that career. I loved it,

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and yet I knew that God was coming for me.

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It or like it or not, God was coming for me.

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It was the knock at the door of my mind

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that did not go away until I said yes to it.

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And so I had the classic surrender moment where I said, okay, fine,

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I will I did a lot of bargaining at first.

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I said, Okay, I'll teach a course in miracles if

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you just let me call it mindfulness, can we do that?

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And that just wasn't happening. So I said yes, okay,

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I will go wherever you want me to go. And

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I know that I knew that if this was God,

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if this was truly God entering into my life, then

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I would be carried and so I could try. So

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I said yes, and I landed on the shore of

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a small organization called the Circle of Atonement. Around that time,

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I knew that they were doing great work, but they

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could do more great work in the world could spread

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their message further and deeper. And so I started as

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a volunteer a couple of years later in the executive

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director and here we are.

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Speaker 1: That's amazing, that's an amazing story. Yet children can definitely

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be a little too honest. I have. I have a

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couple of my own twins, and the other day, a

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little while ago, I was I was in the middle

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of working out and losing weight and getting into shape,

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and one of my youngest daughters like, yeah, Dad, you

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know you don't have as much blubber anymore. I'm like,

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I'm sorry, what. Yeah, I'm like, well did She's like, yeah,

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blubber like the whales, like they have a lot of blubber.

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And I'm like, oh my god, that's so brutal.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. I said to my son, who's now fourteen.

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This is a couple of years ago, but I said,

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I need I need the inspiration to continue my exercise program.

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And he goes, We'll just to cut your muffin top. Wash, Okay,

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but the muffin top.

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Speaker 1: But the muffin top is the best part of the muffin.

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And I'm meant to be fair, Uh, you're right about that.

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There's a commercial like that. It's like there was a

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guy who turns to his wife or the wife turns

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up like what do I look? Do I have a

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muffin top? And he's like, the muffin Top's the best

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part of the muffin baby.

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Speaker 2: And I was steinfeld about that.

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Speaker 1: I think that's the whole thing about that Sun felt.

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But uh yeah, I had a very similar experience with

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me because I come from the film industry, uh And

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I was afraid of opening up next level soul and

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going down this road of trying to talk about spirituality

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and personal growth and asking these big questions. And I

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did a little bit of bargaining as well. I'm like, well,

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I'll just do this and I'll do that, and until

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I finally decided to go in all in and I go,

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you know, one doesn't negate the other and they actually

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can work together. And because I have another popular show

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in the film industry, a podcast, and I was like, well,

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I can see what I can do In the second

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I said all right, I'm in the doors flew open

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and people like yourself and a litany of other guests

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that I have booked now, I mean, like in two

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three days, it was magical. I could not even believe.

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I just started emailing people. I'm like, y, lets se

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if they want to be on the show, and I've

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gotten eighty percent yes, is you know? And I'm just like,

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what is going on? This is where? By the way,

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when I by the way, when I reached out to

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them six months ago, when I first when I was

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a little bit like in and out, I didn't get

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the response that same response is so interesting. It was

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just so fascinating. I was like, I can't believe that

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this is the second you just put you just go okay,

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let's do this.

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Speaker 2: Did you have the same like little voice that got loud?

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Speaker 1: Oh don't. I don't have a little voice. I have

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a very large voice. It's he He's very imposing, and

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he just says, I have to do I have to

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do what I have to do. And that's one of

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the reasons why I started the company and the show

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and trying to get the word out there. And it's grown,

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I mean, so much faster than my filmmaking podcasts and

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my screenwriting podcasts I've ever done. They're probably two of

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the largest ones in its industry. But it took a

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long time. Took years before I can get real traction,

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where now this is happening so fast I can't even

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comprehend it, Like it's really pretty crazy.

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Speaker 2: That's fascinating because I had this what I called everybody

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calls it the divine discontent, like this restlessness.

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Speaker 1: Oh yoh, what.

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Speaker 2: Am I here to do? Why am I not doing

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something with more meaning in my life? Et cetera. And

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that was always there until I said yes to that voice,

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and then once I said yes, it was like, Okay,

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I landed in this place, and that whole restlessness just

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is all I feel.

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Speaker 1: You feel happier. There's a thing about contentment and being

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happy where before you thought things that were important no

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longer are important to you, and things that you never

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thought would be important become important to you. And there

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is this sense of peace that that comes over you.

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And I found it at a certain step when I

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started teaching through my podcast in the film industry, because

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that's where I knew. So I was like, well, I

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know this, let me go down this road. And once

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I started doing this, so much of my anger went away.

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My wife and she's like, I don't know what you're doing,

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but obviously you have found what you want, you were

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meant to do. Keep doing this, and it kept growing

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and growing and growing. And then when I started to

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shift to this area of you know, kind of going

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down the spiritual path and you know, personal growth and

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really trying to help people with trauma and people with

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with you know, what they're dealing with in a daily life.

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God knows, we all have a lot of trauma in

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today's world, the world I've just opened up a lot more,

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But I was still fearful, just like you, just like, well,

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I don't want to call it a course. I'll call

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it mindfulness, you know, I'll call it this and that,

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And had very similar effect with spirituality. We'll be right

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back after a word from our sponsor, and now back

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to the show. You know, because I was raised Catholic,

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you know, Roman Catholic, and I've left it, I begin

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to how long ago I left that in my life

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because I never found it to be made any sense

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for me. It might make sense of other people, but

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not for me. And I just felt like I needed more.

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And this, this this experience that I'm going through right

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now has just been so kind of magical. So I

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get to now really ask questions about things that I

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am really interested in, like a course of miracles. So

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can we actually let's look it back on the track.

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What is of course in miracles? Who wrote it? How

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long has it been around? What is it?

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Speaker 2: Okay? So a course in miracles is a spiritual path

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in which we find our way home to God by

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learning to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal.

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So what is real is the beauty and the pure

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holiness and the innocence and inestimable worth of our true

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nature as God created us. And what is unreal is

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everything else, our judgments, our grievances, our attacks. All of

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that is unreal. And the only thing that is real

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is again our core nature as we were created by God. Now,

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the course in its introduction says that it can be

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summed up very simply in this way. So the course,

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as we've been saying, is a two thousand page, five

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pound book, but it can be summed up very in

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three lines. Nothing real can be threatened, and nothing unreal exists.

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Here in lies the peace of God. And so what

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we learn as course students is a process of disciplining

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our mind to see beyond what our senses and our

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feelings tell us is true about the other person. We

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look to see beyond that through the true, the core

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nature of who they are, and from that place, from

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seeing them as they truly are, we can love them.

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And that's what miracles are in a course in miracles,

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So if you're studying a book called a Course in Miracles,

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it's helpful to know how miracles are defined, and in

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the course, they are defined as expressions of love that

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have a healing effect on the other person, because we

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all know nothing heals like love, and that in turn

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heals us. And so it's a beautiful path.

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Speaker 1: In your opinions, Because I've always been the been of

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of mind that when something negative comes towards you, let's

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say a person, let's say a negative a troll online

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which I'm sure you've probaked out with at one point

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or another, being a person who's out in the public eye,

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or you know, somebody in a line somewhere at the supermarket,

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or someone cuts you off. And when that kind of

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energy comes toward towards you, I always found it to

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be a reflection of something inside of me that I

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might have to work on, whether that be an anger,

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a resentment, or something that I have to work on,

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and this person is there to kind of trigger that

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in you, because I just found that that to be

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the true for me, and talking to other spiritual leaders

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and other seekers as well, they found that as well.

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I was just curious about your opinion.

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Speaker 2: Of that, well, what I love about the course, and

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you mentioned that you're a lapsed Catholic, right, And I

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also I came from from traditional Christianity. I grew up Presbyterian.

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And one of the reasons why although I went into

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Baptism at Baptist Church, and one of the reasons why

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I left was because I could never really resign myself

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to the core nature of original sin, Like I could

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never really understand why, like underneath it all, if God

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really created us, why would he create us with flaws?

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God can't create with flaws. God could only create perfection.

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And so I could never understand the whole concept of

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underneath it all, underneath all of these behaviors, underneath all

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the troll ish etcetera that you're talking about, like that

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there's just a original sin, miserable sinner in there. I

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always thought that underneath it all, we were just pure

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goodness and the work of spirituality was to release the

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blocks through that goodness so that it could just come through.

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And so what I tell myself when I'm faced with

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some form of attack or judgment from someone else is

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that again, beyond those behaviors is the core nature of

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goodness in them. That is true. And that's what I

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try and see. And what I love about the course

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as a path is that the way in which we forgive,

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the main teaching of a course in miracles is forgiveness.

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And the way we forgive is not to kind of

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chew on what the other person did, make it real

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and then try and let it go. The way we

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forgive is we look at what the other person did

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as an error, not a sin. When they did that

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thing or did that thing, they were out of touch

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with their core nature. And so it's our job to

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see that truth in them and to love them anyway right,

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to love them anyway beyond the behaviors that they display,

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and that our love will bring out that goodness in them.

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And so what we tend to try and do when

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we're faced with these tough situations and tough and challenging

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people is we try and judge and attack and obligate

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and control them into the behaviors that we want. And

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what the course teaches is you love them. That's how

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you ultimately get the behavior that you want out of them.

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And if they aren't willing to behave in the way

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that you want, it doesn't matter because your core nature

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isn't affected either way. So you're not clinging to them

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so much if you don't need the other person to

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behave the way that you want them to so much,

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And so there's just a tremendous amount of release and

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not getting so hooked into the tiny and large grievances

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that we all face each day. And when you're not

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so hooked into those grievances, you live with more peace

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and use.

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Speaker 1: Well. I mean, I think that you know, as I've

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been walking around the earth a few years now, I've

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noticed that most people, when people behave in a certain way,

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it is because of some sort of trauma they've gone

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through in their life, whether it was when they were children,

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when it was later something that they're looking for, you know,

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because when you're so angry, angry comes from sort of trauma,

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sort of being disconnected from your from your source. Because

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someone who's really connected to who they are understands who

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they are, are at peace with who they are, don't

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act in that fashion. You know, if you could look

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at spiritual leaders obviously who master that those are the masters,

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but generally speaking that they don't. They're just disconnected. And

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I remember I was an angry I was so angry

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when I was younger, very angry and bitter person because

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I couldn't achieve the dream that I wanted. And when

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I couldn't achieve it, I would be very angry at

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those who were around me, and it was very brutal

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to me. And I just understood there was such an

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anger and because of that trauma that I had been

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dealt earlier in my career. That but I think that love,

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at the end of the day is what solves everything.

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I mean at the end of the day. I mean,

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it does solve everything a one way shape or form.

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It's not easy. It's not easy.

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Speaker 2: Interesting what you say that the part of the anger

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came from not being able to achieve the dream that

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you wanted in the world. And I'm a big believer.

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It's a cliche, but I'm a big believer. And when

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the door closes, the window open. Oh absolutely, And so

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when you listened, like that voice you listened to that

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opened the windows that created the situation that was beyond

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what you were even dreaming about. That's when you can

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start to that's when you really start to develop faith

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and trust because you know that you're being guided through

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life in a way that allows for external circumstances to

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work out in ways that you couldn't have planned and predicted.

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But what you find is that it's the best thing

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for you in the end.

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Speaker 1: There's no question about it. And I've in my experience,

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nothing that I've planned to ever come exciting. It just

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never works out like you want to. You're like, and

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when something really bad happens, at the moment, you feel

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it's bad, but then six months later, or a year later,

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or many years later, you go, my god, that was

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the best thing that I didn't get, Like, I almost

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got on a reality show and I was devastated when

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I was made it like almost to the very end

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and I didn't get on. I'm like, oh, I thought

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it was the end of the world. And then years

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later I'm like, dodge the bullet. I didn't get on

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that thing. Oh my god. But you know, to give

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you an example, is that, you know, the anger of

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not being able to follow that dream. Will be right

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back after a word from our sponsor, and now back

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to the show, is it?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 1: I wanted to get access to these people, very high

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people in my industry, in the film industry, so big

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producers and directors and writers and things like that, And

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it was just there was a desperation in me. It

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was It's like you could smell it spewing off of me,

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and I just wanted to get access to these these

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you know, many legends and masters of their craft. Of course,

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there was no chance of me getting that. Fast forward

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years later, I have a podcast and now they're asking

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me to talk to me for an hour, and now

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I get to sit down and ask them every question

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I've ever wanted to ask them, and give access to

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that same conversation to millions of people around the world.

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And I sit there going, I can't believe I get

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to talk to this person or that person, or this

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Oscar winner or this you know, this writer of my

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favorite television show of all time, And oh, my god,

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like how luck. But it was. But if you would

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have told me this when I was in film school,

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I would have said you're absolutely you know so, I said,

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first of all, what's podcasting? But secondly, because it didn't exist,

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then I went with you.

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Speaker 2: Everything I tried to plan just never worked out, and

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the things that were unplanned have been the best things

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have ever happened in my life.

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Speaker 1: No question. Now, let me who wrote the Course of Miracles?

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Is it a combination? Who's who's the author of it?

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Speaker 2: Right? You did ask me that earlier. I'm sorry I

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didn't didn't get to that part of your question.

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Speaker 1: No words.

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Speaker 2: The Course of Miracles was candled, and it was scribed

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by a woman named Helen Chuckman from nineteen sixty five

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to nineteen seventy two, and it was published in nineteen

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seventy six originally. And when I I say it was

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described by Helen but channeled. The author of A Course

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of Miracles claims to be Jesus. And I know that

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many students find that to be outrageous and so unbelievable. Sure,

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but at the same time, we've had so many students

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just like me who have picked up this book, opened it,

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read a couple pages and recognized this is the Jesus

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that I know and love. This isn't the Jesus on

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the cross. This isn't the Jesus who's judgmental or vengeful

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or someone to be afraid of. This is the Jesus

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who just very kindly and gently wants to guide us

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home through true perception of each other, back to God.

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Speaker 1: Now there's a very famous Yogi Paramansa Yogananda who's a

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very big fan of Jesus and said that Jesus may

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have been crucified in one day, but his teachings have

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been crucified for thousands of years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know it's true. And Gandhi said, oh, Christians,

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you are so unlike your christ right.

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Speaker 1: It's like it was like, I'm going to the Crusades.

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I'm going to kill you because you don't believe in Jesus.

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Like it's like, yeah, disconnect, Am I the only one

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that sees this.

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Speaker 2: Oh, Jesus came in. We strongly believe Jesus came in

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originally with a beautiful vision of an unconditionally loving God

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that was meant to counter this view of God as

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vengeful and wrathful. And so Jesus, Jesus, the radical nature

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of Jesus that he came in with this new vision

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of God, and he got killed for it, and the

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message never took off. It's two thousand years later, and

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there are threads of Jesus's message of unconditional love that

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have gone through time. I really believe that Polstoy got it,

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Gandhi got it, Martin Luther King got it, Saint Francis

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got the true nature of love, the message that Jesus

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came to give us. But in general, it's been very

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misunderstood and misinterpreted. And the course we believe is a

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correction for that.

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Speaker 1: Now. And why do you think his teachings have been

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so massacred over the years. I mean, it's just like

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such a like we were just joking, was disconnect from

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his original ideas of love and a loving God, of

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divine God that I always found it really interesting. I'm like,

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how can a god be vengeful? And that means it's

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pure ego? Like you mean, our God is so so

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egocentric that if you don't worship me in the way

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that I say, you're I'm going to be vengeful towards you.

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Like that makes no sense even on a logical standpoint,

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you know, it just makes no sense.

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Speaker 2: Well, it does make sense if you realize, like, it's

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really hard to forgive unconditionally, oh right, when we feel

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like someone you mentioned trauma, When we feel that we

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have been deeply hurt and traumatized by someone, typically what

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comes to mind first and the feeling and the emotion

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that we sit with is how hurt we are and

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how much we want to get back at the person

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who hurt us. And so that there's something in our

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ego core nature of the course calls it ancient hate.

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We come into these bodies with this certain amount of

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ancient hate. And so what better way to sanction your

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hate and to get approval of your hate towards someone

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else then to have a God that is also wrathful.

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And so if God is wrathful, and if God is

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saying these are the in group and this is the

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out group, then it sanctions our desire to do the same.

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So then we get to say you're in, you're out,

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and I'm going to enact revenge on you, and it's

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okay because God's doing it too. It's a lot harder

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to in the face of an attack, and no one

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faces more attack than Jesus, right, I mean, he was

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crucified in the most horrific, brutal way, and even in

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the face of that, he displayed unconditional love. Forgive them, Father,

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for they know not what they do. And so we

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find that message beautiful, and at the same time, we

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find it very difficult to enact in our own lives

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in the ways in which we're crucified in little ways

476
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:58,799
every day, like someone cuts us off in traffic and

477
00:27:58,839 --> 00:28:04,160
we kind of get upset. And so unconditional love is hard.

478
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,759
And so if you want to hold on to the

479
00:28:07,799 --> 00:28:11,119
grievance and the judgment, give it to God and he'll

480
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:12,640
sanction that behavior in you as well.

481
00:28:13,079 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 1: So you mentioned the ego, which is one of my

482
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,519
favorite conversations to have about ego because it's it's something

483
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:20,839
we all have it. I don't care who you are,

484
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:25,640
even even if you're a spiritual master on this in

485
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:29,039
this lifetime, you still have ego. Some have mastered the ego,

486
00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:33,920
most have not. Why do you believe that, or how

487
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,920
does the ego or why does the ego demand almost

488
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:43,759
a separation of a separation from others, Like it's me

489
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,759
versus the world as opposed to we're all connected, we're

490
00:28:47,759 --> 00:28:51,279
all together, and there's always that need to separate to

491
00:28:51,519 --> 00:28:55,240
make themselves look bigger. All this kind of stuff the ego,

492
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:57,559
like how when you're saying, like, when someone cuts you off,

493
00:28:57,599 --> 00:29:01,119
that's an offense to my ego. You know it shouldn't be,

494
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,000
but it's an offense, like how dare you cut me off?

495
00:29:05,039 --> 00:29:06,720
Don't you know who I am? I always love that.

496
00:29:06,759 --> 00:29:08,279
If anyone says that to me, I was like, Wow,

497
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:10,039
you're far gone, sir.

498
00:29:11,519 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 2: Yeah. And this is such a great topic, the ego,

499
00:29:15,799 --> 00:29:21,240
because we all have one. I believe that when it

500
00:29:21,279 --> 00:29:26,160
comes to the Holy Spirit, we all share the universal

501
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:29,559
Spirit of God. It's equal in all of us, no

502
00:29:29,599 --> 00:29:32,079
matter who we are or what we've done. But when

503
00:29:32,079 --> 00:29:34,599
it comes to the ego, the course does we make

504
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,960
one ego for ourselves. And so that's why certain things

505
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,640
that are triggering to me may not be triggering to you.

506
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:44,880
And that kind of thing. And so our ego is

507
00:29:45,119 --> 00:29:48,759
unique to us, and we turn the dial up and

508
00:29:48,799 --> 00:29:50,880
down on it based on what's going on in our

509
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:55,599
own mind. But the course, from a course perspective, the

510
00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:00,880
ego is always something to do whatever you can to

511
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,359
get rid of. And so the reason why I say

512
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:09,240
that is because in spirituality today there is there's so

513
00:30:09,359 --> 00:30:11,839
much teaching, and it doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just

514
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,039
different than what the course teaches. The course teaches that

515
00:30:15,279 --> 00:30:20,039
the ego, its core nature is attack. It is never

516
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,920
out to help you. And so that whole discussion of well,

517
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,039
I just have to make friends with my ego, I

518
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:29,240
just have to dance with my ego because it's the

519
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:32,519
thing that keeps me safe. From a course perspective, the

520
00:30:32,599 --> 00:30:35,880
ego will never keep you safe because it's always the

521
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,960
thing that wants to separate from other people. It's always

522
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:42,480
that it's core nature is attack again, and so it's

523
00:30:42,519 --> 00:30:46,000
always going to want to puff you up at the

524
00:30:46,119 --> 00:30:49,960
expense of someone else. And that's what makes it so dangerous.

525
00:30:50,359 --> 00:30:55,640
And so that to me, when you think, okay, the course,

526
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:59,519
does the coordinator the problem. All the problems in our

527
00:30:59,599 --> 00:31:03,400
world come down to the ego, and the ego comes

528
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:08,119
down to separation, and separation is I'm above and you're below.

529
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,

530
00:31:16,079 --> 00:31:17,359
and now back to the show.

531
00:31:19,279 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 2: And so when you look around at the world and

532
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:26,039
you say, okay, so if every problem, every conflict is

533
00:31:26,119 --> 00:31:30,119
caused by the ego, which is separation above and below

534
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,319
trying to be above everything. It's like you just put

535
00:31:33,359 --> 00:31:37,079
on these glasses and everything makes sense. All of the

536
00:31:37,359 --> 00:31:40,599
conflict in our home, the conflict in our work, all

537
00:31:40,599 --> 00:31:44,559
the way up to war, comes down to above and below.

538
00:31:45,079 --> 00:31:48,400
And so if we can just eradicate that and have

539
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,880
a spiritual path that says no, no, no, no, the only

540
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,400
thing true about you is what God put there, and

541
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,960
that's equal in absolutely everyone. So then we start to

542
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,880
have a conversation about how we're this same versus how

543
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:02,839
we're different. And that's when we really start to hail

544
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:03,440
our planet.

545
00:32:03,839 --> 00:32:06,559
Speaker 1: I mean, that is the beauty of being. I guess

546
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,200
there's a beauty of animal life and nature. If you

547
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,200
look at animals, animals don't have ego. You know, you

548
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,559
don't see one wolf, one wolf trying to say I'm

549
00:32:16,559 --> 00:32:19,960
a much. I mean, yes, there's territorial things, but that's more,

550
00:32:20,319 --> 00:32:22,240
but not like in the way that we do it

551
00:32:22,599 --> 00:32:25,359
that we have to puff ourselves up and make ourselves

552
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:27,640
look so much bigger. I mean, it's kind of like

553
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:29,920
even the ego in the spiritual space, because you see

554
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:34,319
a lot of even you know, quote unquote spiritual masters

555
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:36,000
is like, you know, I'm so much more spiritual than you.

556
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:40,079
I'm like the most spiritual.

557
00:32:39,359 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 2: Like you know, It's like there's ego even in humility.

558
00:32:44,279 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 1: It's like I am the humblest, i am the humblest.

559
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:49,640
I'm so much more humble than you are, Emily, I'm

560
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:52,240
so much more humble than the I'm the humblest person

561
00:32:52,279 --> 00:32:52,839
you'll ever meet.

562
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 2: Like, and it's still trying to put yourself above through humility. Yeah,

563
00:32:58,279 --> 00:33:01,000
and that's what I'm talking about. That that's when you

564
00:33:01,039 --> 00:33:03,559
start to see, Okay, this is what the ego does.

565
00:33:03,759 --> 00:33:06,480
It separates and puts above. Then you start to see

566
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,799
it everywhere, and then when you realize, okay, that's the problem,

567
00:33:10,119 --> 00:33:12,480
then we can uproot it at its foundation.

568
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,480
Speaker 1: So what is the ego? Body illusion? Which I saw

569
00:33:16,599 --> 00:33:19,119
inside of the course of miracles? Is there? Can you

570
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,039
kind of dive into that topic a little bit.

571
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as I was saying before, the only thing real,

572
00:33:29,039 --> 00:33:32,920
ultimately real, is our core nature as we were created

573
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:38,160
by God. So our your innocence, our dignity, our worth,

574
00:33:38,559 --> 00:33:44,240
our holiness as children sounds of God, and so everything

575
00:33:44,279 --> 00:33:50,119
else is false. Well, everything else that's false includes the body. Ultimately,

576
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,640
these bodies we know they die, so they can't be real.

577
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:55,200
You don't even have to be a core student to

578
00:33:55,319 --> 00:33:57,839
know that the body dies, so it can't be real.

579
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:05,319
And so what what the ego does is it tells

580
00:34:05,359 --> 00:34:10,199
you that your identity is in this body, and therefore

581
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,079
it does everything it can to kind of protect the

582
00:34:13,119 --> 00:34:17,320
sanctity of this body. And what we're doing when we

583
00:34:17,519 --> 00:34:23,440
just take the foundation of the ego away is we

584
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:25,760
say that, you know, the ultimately the body isn't real,

585
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:27,719
and so I don't have to spend so much time

586
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:32,559
trying to defend and protect this body. Now that doesn't

587
00:34:32,559 --> 00:34:34,760
mean that you know, walk out in front of traffic

588
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:38,480
or anything, but it does mean that there is tremendous

589
00:34:38,519 --> 00:34:43,880
freedom in recognizing that your your source isn't your body.

590
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:47,519
Because bodies age, they decay, they get sick, they get injured,

591
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,239
and so when your sense of self isn't so wrapped

592
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:55,239
up in the body, then you're freer in how you

593
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:56,039
move through the world.

594
00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:00,639
Speaker 1: So and that's why it's so difficult for actors, models

595
00:35:00,639 --> 00:35:04,360
and people who are known for their body. As time

596
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:09,519
goes on and they fight the you know time, they

597
00:35:09,639 --> 00:35:12,800
become more and more depressed where and even in society,

598
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,119
like you know, you know, you know the New Sex

599
00:35:16,119 --> 00:35:18,840
and the City spin off that just came out, Like,

600
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,559
you know, they're in their fifties. They look like they're

601
00:35:21,559 --> 00:35:24,119
women in their fifties. That's okay. They're not supposed to

602
00:35:24,119 --> 00:35:26,519
look like they look like in their twenties, and yet

603
00:35:26,679 --> 00:35:28,920
you know they're demonized for it, and men men get

604
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,440
a little bit of a pass. But generally speaking, you know, men, men.

605
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:33,280
Speaker 2: Men are allowed to age.

606
00:35:33,519 --> 00:35:36,639
Speaker 1: Men are allowed to age, no question. Yeah, Sean Connery

607
00:35:36,639 --> 00:35:41,360
looked very dapper when he was older, and but women

608
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:43,840
are not. But even then, even men who you know,

609
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,960
at one point what were the stud and the you know,

610
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:50,199
perfect body and all that stuff that that all deteriorates.

611
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:53,840
It's impossible to keep that to the end. Everything deteriorates,

612
00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:56,719
it all goes away. So it's always it's always fascinating,

613
00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:58,760
like the ego that you build up in your twenties,

614
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,280
thirties and even forty, when you start getting into your fifties,

615
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:06,480
you know, nature takes its course. You could do you

616
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:10,000
could hold off with some surgery and you know, eating

617
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:12,119
very well and taking care of yourself, but at a

618
00:36:12,119 --> 00:36:15,280
certain point, you know you're gonna look like your age

619
00:36:15,679 --> 00:36:19,880
you know, unless you're Jane Fonda. Uh right, we no

620
00:36:20,039 --> 00:36:24,039
share share share looks she obviously drinks baby's blood.

621
00:36:24,079 --> 00:36:27,840
Speaker 2: There's no question in my mindorneers she is.

622
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 1: There's I don't understand she's she's I think she's a vampire.

623
00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:36,119
But uh but for everybody else, it's so true. And

624
00:36:36,119 --> 00:36:38,159
and and I would love to hear your thoughts on

625
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,239
you know, you were just talking about the ego and

626
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:44,559
the body, and and and the ego needing to identify

627
00:36:44,559 --> 00:36:47,039
itself with the body, and how it's so important to

628
00:36:47,199 --> 00:36:50,000
the ego the world that we live in today in

629
00:36:50,079 --> 00:36:54,559
social media, it's all about what we look like, how

630
00:36:54,599 --> 00:36:57,840
we're you know, the body and the filters and and

631
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,119
and almost putting out this false image of who you

632
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:04,400
are in the world. You know. Social media, in my opinion,

633
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,880
has been very is a tool like any other. It

634
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:10,320
could be used for real good, but it could also

635
00:37:10,559 --> 00:37:13,559
destroy a hammer, could build a house that could also kill,

636
00:37:14,159 --> 00:37:16,719
you know, So it all depends on how it's used.

637
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:19,800
But what do you think is happening to our society,

638
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:24,280
especially this new generation coming up? Who you know, I

639
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:26,119
thank god I didn't have social media when I was

640
00:37:26,159 --> 00:37:26,760
a teenager.

641
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:30,360
Speaker 2: My god, and one of the comparison traps are hard

642
00:37:30,679 --> 00:37:34,000
enough when you're a teenager.

643
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:35,559
Speaker 1: You have thirty other people. Yeah, well, you have thirty

644
00:37:35,559 --> 00:37:37,599
other people in your classroom. It's rough. Imagine having three

645
00:37:37,679 --> 00:37:40,280
hundred thousand or three million other people to compare yourself with.

646
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 2: It's no. I know, it's difficult and challenging. And I,

647
00:37:46,679 --> 00:37:50,480
like so many others, have read the statistics, particularly about

648
00:37:50,519 --> 00:37:55,119
how social media affects teenage girls and the depression and

649
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:59,719
anxiety that it causes when you look at your not

650
00:38:00,199 --> 00:38:06,400
so great life compared to other people's curated, fabulous life,

651
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:11,079
and it creates that disconnect and a lot of stress results.

652
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:15,360
And so I certainly feel for that. You know, you were,

653
00:38:15,519 --> 00:38:17,400
you were mentioning Sex in the City, and I just

654
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,199
have to say I was reading before I came to

655
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,639
this podcast today article. And I don't know if this

656
00:38:23,679 --> 00:38:25,400
is true. I didn't actually look it up, but the

657
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:30,039
women on Sex in the City are the same age

658
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,559
as the Golden Girls.

659
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:36,800
Speaker 1: Yes they were, they were. Blanche was mind blowing. No

660
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:41,320
Blanche who was the sex whenever with the sex fiend

661
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:46,360
in the Golden Girls. They Betty White was fifty five there.

662
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:47,719
Speaker 2: I mean, that's amazing.

663
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,599
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, if you want to even be your mind

664
00:38:50,599 --> 00:38:55,519
even blown more. Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, who said

665
00:38:55,559 --> 00:38:59,000
he's too old for this scrap. He was forty seven.

666
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:03,679
He's my age and he was playing fifty five but

667
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:07,960
he was forty seven. Yeah, just like looking I'm like, oh,

668
00:39:08,119 --> 00:39:11,440
oh my god.

669
00:39:10,039 --> 00:39:12,760
Speaker 2: Well I'm forty five, and I think everyone on Sex

670
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,960
and the City looks like amazing, Like I can only

671
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:19,320
hope to look like that now. But anyway, the point is,

672
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:22,400
as I was saying before, that what the ego will

673
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,599
tell you to do is to hook into your looks

674
00:39:26,639 --> 00:39:33,400
and your status, and your things, your possessions, and your relationships,

675
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:37,320
who you know as your sense of identity and worse

676
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:41,480
and what social media does. You mentioned it can be

677
00:39:41,639 --> 00:39:45,840
used as a tool of good or ill, But typically

678
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,440
what you see, at least you know, as we were scrolling,

679
00:39:49,639 --> 00:39:54,559
we see all the ways in which our lives don't

680
00:39:54,599 --> 00:39:58,639
measure up to again, the curated lives of those that

681
00:39:58,679 --> 00:40:02,039
we follow, and so so what you have to develop

682
00:40:02,519 --> 00:40:09,199
these days is an attitudinal musculature to have the discipline

683
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:15,159
to say, this person, while their life looks amazing and

684
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:20,039
while they are beautiful, the truth of who they are

685
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:24,119
is their holiness, and so we look to see beyond

686
00:40:24,199 --> 00:40:27,079
the form to the holiness. And so when you can

687
00:40:27,199 --> 00:40:32,280
do that with a life that you admire, then you

688
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,960
work that muscle and it becomes easier to do in

689
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:40,880
challenging situations where you know you're not looking at the

690
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:44,400
other person so favorably. And so what we're looking, what

691
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:48,320
we're trying to do as spiritual students is to kind

692
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:52,280
of get away from this game of life where it

693
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:54,480
is about who you know and how you look and

694
00:40:54,519 --> 00:41:00,039
what you have beyond that to the goodness and the

695
00:41:00,079 --> 00:41:02,800
equality of all of us. And honestly, that's the only

696
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:05,079
thing that that's going to heal our world.

697
00:41:05,119 --> 00:41:09,079
Speaker 1: At this point, we'll be right back after a word

698
00:41:09,079 --> 00:41:17,480
from our sponsor, and now back to the show. Yeah,

699
00:41:17,559 --> 00:41:21,360
it was. I always say that I've never seen a

700
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:23,400
hearse with a U haul behind it. I mean, you

701
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:27,840
can't take it with you, and it's all it's but

702
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:29,679
it's true because at the end of the day, you

703
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,800
accumulate all this stuff and it makes you feel better

704
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:35,440
and you're walking around and you're like, oh, look at

705
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:39,280
this or look at that, And I've slowly detached myself

706
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:42,079
from my possessions to a certain point where I'm like,

707
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:46,679
if I lose that, it's okay. It's just a thing,

708
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:49,679
you know, if and it's a it's a it's a

709
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:51,440
It's taken me a long time to do that because

710
00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:53,679
I used to be a collector. I used to collect

711
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,119
comic books. I used to collect I used to be

712
00:41:56,159 --> 00:41:58,559
collectors of a ton of stuff when I was a kid.

713
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,679
And I was like, up until recently, up until right

714
00:42:01,679 --> 00:42:05,360
before the pandemic, I had I don't know, probably ten

715
00:42:06,079 --> 00:42:09,719
long boxes of comic books, and I've been carrying them

716
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:12,719
since I was a kid and collecting. But I hadn't

717
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:16,199
been to a comic book store in ten years. And

718
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,800
every time I moved, I lugged the thing out and

719
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,079
and I just sat there one then like I don't

720
00:42:22,079 --> 00:42:24,800
even look at these. I'm let me sell them and

721
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:25,679
invest the money.

722
00:42:26,079 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, and I did.

723
00:42:29,199 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 1: And I did, and I was like, I felt so

724
00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:34,000
much lighter. And I kept one or two that were

725
00:42:34,199 --> 00:42:37,320
like emotional, I felt emotional towards like I remember the

726
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:40,079
story behind it. Even if I lost those tomorrow, it's

727
00:42:40,079 --> 00:42:41,920
not like I look at it every day. Even if

728
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:43,679
I lost those tomorrow, I'll be like it. It's okay,

729
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:47,519
I have my memory of it. But it's an art.

730
00:42:47,519 --> 00:42:49,679
It's it is an art for it. It isn't work

731
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,480
to detach yourself from the material world. And that's just

732
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:57,679
one example. From the body to other people, to the

733
00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:02,599
physicality of the world. Every this is a very intoxicating environment.

734
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:05,280
This is the matrix. This is the matrix. We are

735
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:10,360
in the matrix. It's extremely it's extremely intoxicating. But we're

736
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:13,199
trying to get back to the real world. This is,

737
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:15,159
in my opinion, not the real world. And I know

738
00:43:15,199 --> 00:43:17,039
a lot of people you know, out there, like, what

739
00:43:17,119 --> 00:43:18,599
do you talk about? This is the real world? Like,

740
00:43:19,639 --> 00:43:20,800
you know, that's just my opinion.

741
00:43:21,039 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 2: There's a concept in the course called the real world, okay,

742
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:30,280
And from a course perspective, the real world is only

743
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:34,519
the love in the world and everything else doesn't exist.

744
00:43:34,599 --> 00:43:37,480
And it actually has this kind of fascinating concept. I

745
00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:41,960
don't understand it fully, but that the only things that

746
00:43:42,039 --> 00:43:45,599
are saved from our lives here is the love that

747
00:43:45,639 --> 00:43:48,840
we give. And so it calls it the treasure house.

748
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:54,360
And so some somewhere the love that we've expressed in

749
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:59,119
this world is stored for us, and we will access it.

750
00:43:59,199 --> 00:44:03,119
We can't access it. And again I don't understand that concept.

751
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:05,840
But when I think about it in relation to what

752
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:09,199
you're saying about, like comic books, and I've collected magazines too,

753
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:13,440
so I know that whole thing as well. But what

754
00:44:13,519 --> 00:44:17,159
if what we really collect is our acts of kindness?

755
00:44:17,519 --> 00:44:21,360
What if what we collect is the love that we give.

756
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:24,280
What if that it really is collected for us and

757
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:29,119
that's the only thing that survives. If we thought, Okay,

758
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:32,880
I want to collect kindness, so therefore I'm going to

759
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:36,639
act with kindness throughout my every day. Again, what a

760
00:44:36,679 --> 00:44:39,159
different world we would have. It's a whole lot more

761
00:44:39,199 --> 00:44:41,199
satisfying than comic books and magazines.

762
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,159
Speaker 1: It's so interesting because I don't know if you ever

763
00:44:44,199 --> 00:44:46,280
saw this. This was a there was a study done

764
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:50,360
where they gave like a hundred They gave like ten

765
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,639
people one hundred dollars, and they had twenty people one

766
00:44:53,679 --> 00:44:56,199
hundred dollars. Ten of them get to keep the hundred dollars.

767
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:58,800
Ten of them had I had to give it give

768
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:03,280
it away, uh, to a stranger on the street. And

769
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:05,800
when they brought everybody back, people who are the happiest

770
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:08,239
were the people who gave up money away and it's

771
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:14,079
in it's ingrained in our DNA because honestly, if you

772
00:45:14,119 --> 00:45:17,000
don't give, the tribe doesn't continue. That if you want

773
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:19,880
to go back to prehistoric times, the tribe doesn't continue.

774
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,719
If you if you don't know how to cooperate, you

775
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:25,639
don't live. You're the saber tooth tiger that's gonna get

776
00:45:25,639 --> 00:45:27,039
you know, the saber doors, No saber tooth thing, you

777
00:45:27,079 --> 00:45:30,360
know what I'm talking about. The lion's gonna get you. Something's

778
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:34,239
gonna get you. So the concept of giving you there's

779
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,199
endorphins that are released when you give. Feels so good

780
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:41,480
to give, it feels natural to give. And in my life,

781
00:45:41,679 --> 00:45:45,840
the moment I stopped trying to take from the world

782
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:49,400
and get what I wanted and started to give to

783
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:54,480
the world what I wanted to give them, the doors

784
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,880
opened in ways that I can't even comprehend. Like I

785
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,360
told you earlier, with my show, and the second I

786
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:02,360
started to give back to my community, to give back

787
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:06,119
to the people in the form of shows and education

788
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:12,159
and everything that I do, my life changed, and it's

789
00:46:12,199 --> 00:46:15,559
been it changed six and a half About six and

790
00:46:15,599 --> 00:46:18,159
a half years ago when I started my first podcast,

791
00:46:18,199 --> 00:46:23,039
my humble, first little podcast, and now it is now

792
00:46:23,199 --> 00:46:26,039
my life. This is what I love to do, and

793
00:46:26,079 --> 00:46:28,280
I've not given up on other parts of what I

794
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:30,519
want to do in my life, but this is like,

795
00:46:30,559 --> 00:46:33,960
oh no, I feel too good doing this. It feels

796
00:46:34,079 --> 00:46:35,719
I don't know if you've had this experience, but someone

797
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,159
walks up to you at an event or after you

798
00:46:38,159 --> 00:46:40,239
speak or something, and they go, you changed my life.

799
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:43,199
Your book changed my life. Your teaching has changed my life.

800
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:47,360
Your podcast changed my life. Something changed that is addictive.

801
00:46:47,679 --> 00:46:48,960
It's extremely addictive.

802
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:54,079
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned the study about giving one hundred dollars.

803
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:57,400
There's also a study about our happiness. To that point,

804
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,719
scientists have been trying to figure out, Okay, why are

805
00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:03,400
some people just more happy than others, and what can

806
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:05,920
we do to bottle it, to make to spread it

807
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:09,280
around so that we're happier as a society, because you know,

808
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:11,679
if you look at the data, we're pretty depressed. And

809
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:17,599
what they've found was that there are that you can

810
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:22,599
actually elevate your happiness, and we have a happiness step point,

811
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,119
and we can do things like get a new job

812
00:47:25,199 --> 00:47:29,440
or win the lottery, and but that fades and we

813
00:47:29,559 --> 00:47:32,039
bounce back to our set point, right, or we can

814
00:47:32,119 --> 00:47:34,719
become depressed, we can lose a spouse, or lose our job,

815
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:37,519
or lose a bunch of money and that phase and

816
00:47:37,519 --> 00:47:39,559
then we bounce back to our happiness step point. So

817
00:47:39,599 --> 00:47:41,519
what is it that like actually makes us happier to

818
00:47:41,559 --> 00:47:44,559
where we can stick at a higher level of happiness.

819
00:47:44,719 --> 00:47:49,960
And what they learned was drum roll altruism. It's giving

820
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:53,800
things away, it's standing for something bigger than just yourself.

821
00:47:54,199 --> 00:47:57,360
And that is consistently when we are in that practice

822
00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:01,199
of giving that we become happier. And it's the only

823
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:04,400
thing scientists have found that actually makes us happier in

824
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:05,280
a way that sticks.

825
00:48:06,119 --> 00:48:11,119
Speaker 1: You know. It's it's fascinating because we give. We're so

826
00:48:11,199 --> 00:48:13,840
much happier when we give. We give away. And you see,

827
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:17,199
I use movie stars because I'm more I know that

828
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:20,719
part of the world. Uh that when movie stars have rich,

829
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:24,639
they're rich, they're famous, they have you know, perfect bodies

830
00:48:24,679 --> 00:48:28,320
according to society, they have all the success that can

831
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:32,920
ever want. And many of these people who I've met

832
00:48:33,559 --> 00:48:36,719
are very unhappy, very sad.

833
00:48:36,559 --> 00:48:40,800
Speaker 2: Of course, because their happiness is contingent upon the disconnection

834
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:41,639
they're disconnected.

835
00:48:41,679 --> 00:48:45,559
Speaker 1: Well, right, they're they're disc they're disconnected. And I've talked

836
00:48:45,559 --> 00:48:47,760
to Oscar winners who's like, after they won the Oscar,

837
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:49,920
I'm like, I was depressed. I didn't know what else

838
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:52,880
to do. Like, once you reach the pinnacle of the industry,

839
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:56,880
according to what the industry says, you just go, what

840
00:48:56,920 --> 00:48:59,119
do I do now? I don't know what to do

841
00:48:59,199 --> 00:49:01,719
with myself? And and that's why, you know, you see

842
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:04,360
these rock stars and you see these you know, rich

843
00:49:04,559 --> 00:49:08,480
you know, athletes who destroy themselves, and you see them

844
00:49:08,519 --> 00:49:12,679
self destruct publicly. Some don't make it, some do, you know,

845
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:14,599
and make it out the other end. But it is,

846
00:49:15,679 --> 00:49:18,239
it's really really interesting. I think Jim Carrey said it.

847
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:21,760
Jim Carrey is such an interesting character, not only because

848
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:24,920
of his talent as an actor and a comedian, but

849
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:28,039
he said, I wish everybody in the world could get

850
00:49:28,079 --> 00:49:34,159
everything they wanted so they would understand it's not the answer. Yeah,

851
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:39,760
and you're like're so deep, so like, oh, that makes One.

852
00:49:39,679 --> 00:49:45,280
Speaker 2: Of the most interesting instagrams that I follow is Paulina Porskova.

853
00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:46,840
Speaker 1: I don't know if you, Oh yeah, I just saw

854
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:48,760
a video with her the other day. She's like, I'm

855
00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:50,599
fifty five, I thought, right.

856
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:53,920
Speaker 2: So so for those of us who grew up reading

857
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:57,320
fashion magazines in the nineties, her and the Cindy Crawfords

858
00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:01,519
and the Naomi Campbell's were like it just the height

859
00:50:01,639 --> 00:50:05,239
of beauty. And Paulina she's fifty.

860
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 1: Five now, Yeah, she says she's fifty five. She's about

861
00:50:07,599 --> 00:50:10,679
a few years older than j Loo, okay, and people

862
00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:12,920
are comparing her to Jlo and she's like, I don't

863
00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:16,679
look like Jlo. Jlo is again another anomaly of.

864
00:50:17,519 --> 00:50:18,440
Speaker 2: She's a freak of nature.

865
00:50:18,519 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 1: She's also another freak of nature. Yeah, but Paulina said

866
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:24,360
that she's like, I'm fifty five. I don't see anybody

867
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:29,320
my age out there, and it's like you either, j Loo.

868
00:50:29,559 --> 00:50:32,239
And then the next time you see someone it's Betty

869
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:35,719
White like and everything between is just not accept that

870
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:36,519
we don't want to see you.

871
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:41,519
Speaker 2: What's interesting about Paulina's Instagram is that she's so publicly

872
00:50:41,559 --> 00:50:45,280
grappling with this idea. So, here is someone and this

873
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:49,519
speaks to your experience in Hollywood. Here is someone who

874
00:50:49,559 --> 00:50:52,599
has been celebrated her whole life for the way that

875
00:50:52,639 --> 00:50:57,719
she looks. And these looks fade. They just do men

876
00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:02,039
or women, And so what happened when you're not turning

877
00:51:02,079 --> 00:51:04,880
heads and getting opportunities the way that you once did.

878
00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:09,159
If your sense of identity and worth is hooked into

879
00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:11,800
how you look, you're going to struggle with that.

880
00:51:13,559 --> 00:51:16,079
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,

881
00:51:19,679 --> 00:51:20,960
and now back to the show.

882
00:51:23,039 --> 00:51:26,559
Speaker 2: And again, what makes Paulina's account so fascinating is that

883
00:51:26,599 --> 00:51:32,239
she's so publicly struggling with this. But you can avoid

884
00:51:32,239 --> 00:51:35,320
that struggle altogether. You can save yourself a lot of pain.

885
00:51:35,679 --> 00:51:39,800
Paulina herself calls she has nicknamed herself the crying woman

886
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:43,800
of Instagram. You can stop crying if you're not so

887
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:47,159
identified with how you look. You can stop crying if

888
00:51:47,199 --> 00:51:51,199
you find another source beyond this body for your happiness.

889
00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:57,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she seems to be fighting fighting this idea

890
00:51:57,599 --> 00:52:02,440
because she once of her She wants to be able

891
00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:08,159
to grow old gracefully. But yet she's still holding on

892
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:11,480
and on a subconscious level to what she was. And

893
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:14,880
by the way, for everyone listening, it's not just beauty.

894
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:18,920
It could be your career, your careers or identity. It

895
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:22,719
could be uh married, your marriage, your career.

896
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:25,360
Speaker 2: Here's a spouse and you lose your identity.

897
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:27,000
Speaker 1: You skill. There's so many different things that you can

898
00:52:27,039 --> 00:52:29,639
associate like this is what you associate yourself with. But

899
00:52:30,519 --> 00:52:34,800
everything fades, and one way from everything fades. Your career

900
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:37,760
will fade, your your your looks will fade, your health

901
00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:41,760
will fade, your relationship. They will die eventually, or you

902
00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:44,159
will die eventually. It all fades. But the only thing

903
00:52:44,159 --> 00:52:49,440
that doesn't is that internal connection. If you find that

904
00:52:49,519 --> 00:52:52,199
internal connection with yourself and the value of who you

905
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:56,360
are as a spiritual being, that goes along the entire path,

906
00:52:57,039 --> 00:53:00,360
and that should tell you that that is the real

907
00:53:01,039 --> 00:53:05,000
and the rest is not. In ten thousand years, I

908
00:53:05,039 --> 00:53:07,840
always tell people who get so caught up in my business,

909
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:09,639
I'm like, dude, in ten thousand years, no one's going

910
00:53:09,719 --> 00:53:15,119
to watch your movie. You'll be a footnote if you're lucky.

911
00:53:15,519 --> 00:53:18,760
The giants of our industry, Like you know, Clark Gable

912
00:53:19,079 --> 00:53:22,280
was the biggest movie star in the world nine ten

913
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:24,719
out of ten. People on the street unless they're of

914
00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:26,519
a certain age, no idea who he is.

915
00:53:27,119 --> 00:53:30,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. I look at what the Beatles did

916
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:34,159
in the sixties. Look at how the whole world kind

917
00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:37,920
of like tilted towards the Beatles. I asked my son

918
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:39,039
the other day. I was like, do you know who

919
00:53:39,039 --> 00:53:40,400
Paul McCartney is, And he's like.

920
00:53:40,559 --> 00:53:45,199
Speaker 1: No, eventually, And by the way, let's using the Beatles

921
00:53:45,199 --> 00:53:49,239
as an example. The Beatles basically dented the world. I mean,

922
00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:53,400
what they've done with their music is beyond comprehension. I'm

923
00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:56,760
a huge fan of the Beatles. My kids are fans

924
00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:59,360
of the Beatles. Not because we're playing the music and

925
00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:02,360
we're kind of pass sing it along, but you're talking

926
00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:05,280
about the beat like basically the biggest band of all time,

927
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:10,400
the most popular band of all time, and they will fade.

928
00:54:10,519 --> 00:54:14,719
They will fade eventually, maybe some trickles of it will

929
00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:17,880
will live on. And I think the core message of

930
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:20,679
what the Beatles said with love love is love. Paul

931
00:54:20,719 --> 00:54:23,360
McCartney said, like, I don't know, like ninety five percent

932
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:26,599
of our songs are about love. You know, he goes

933
00:54:26,679 --> 00:54:29,000
that's that was the message that they put out there.

934
00:54:29,159 --> 00:54:31,639
When you won't you won't hear the same thing about

935
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,679
And I'm not going to bash Elvis, but Elvis or

936
00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:40,760
other artists of that of that generation, the Beatles still stick,

937
00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:43,679
and you know, they still stick, and whether you like

938
00:54:43,719 --> 00:54:45,480
them or hate them. They did dent the world, you

939
00:54:45,519 --> 00:54:47,760
know they did. They made a difference, but they will

940
00:54:47,800 --> 00:54:51,559
fade as well. But their message of love, I hope doesn't.

941
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:53,639
And that's where that music is. I think that's why

942
00:54:53,639 --> 00:54:57,199
it holds so much, because it's about it's essentially about love.

943
00:54:57,880 --> 00:54:58,679
Love is all you need.

944
00:54:58,800 --> 00:54:59,679
Speaker 2: All you need is love.

945
00:55:00,079 --> 00:55:02,519
Speaker 1: All you need is love. All you need is love.

946
00:55:03,119 --> 00:55:04,920
Speaker 2: Now Jesus message too.

947
00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:07,920
Speaker 1: So you see it's good. It's good. Mark Jesus needed

948
00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:11,480
a better PR person. I mean, seriously, that's the problem.

949
00:55:11,519 --> 00:55:13,039
Just Jesus don't have a good PR person.

950
00:55:13,079 --> 00:55:15,639
Speaker 2: So in that whole like thread that I was saying earlier,

951
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:18,679
like tool Stoy say, for instance, and Gandhi and Martiny's

952
00:55:18,719 --> 00:55:20,159
are king, we'll just beat the.

953
00:55:20,360 --> 00:55:22,719
Speaker 1: P Paul McCartney and John Lennon, you know, and and

954
00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:25,840
then Paul and Ringo, everybody, the whole, the whole, the four,

955
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:29,639
the the fabulous four fab four as well. Now I'm

956
00:55:29,639 --> 00:55:31,519
gonna ask you a couple of questions. I'd love to

957
00:55:31,559 --> 00:55:35,400
ask all of my guests, what is your mission in

958
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:36,119
this life?

959
00:55:38,639 --> 00:55:40,800
Speaker 2: In short, my mission is to help, of course and

960
00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:43,800
miracles become one of the world's great spiritual traditions.

961
00:55:44,519 --> 00:55:48,719
Speaker 1: And what is your and and why are we here

962
00:55:49,159 --> 00:55:52,159
as a as a as humans, as a as a

963
00:55:52,199 --> 00:55:54,360
species to learn.

964
00:55:54,280 --> 00:55:58,119
Speaker 2: To transcend our ego and to love and that's how

965
00:55:58,159 --> 00:56:00,320
we find our way home to God. Yeah.

966
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:03,679
Speaker 1: Great, great answers to both those answers. Emily, thank you

967
00:56:03,719 --> 00:56:05,840
so much for being on the show. I really appreciate

968
00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:08,400
you taking the time out and it was an absolute

969
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:10,280
joy and pleasure talking to you. And continue the good

970
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:10,800
work you're.

971
00:56:10,639 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 2: Doing, my dear, Thank you so much. It was an

972
00:56:13,079 --> 00:56:13,880
honor to be here.

973
00:56:15,760 --> 00:56:19,239
Speaker 1: Corse and Miracles is a very powerful text and I

974
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:23,880
recommend everybody listening to definitely check it out. If you

975
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:25,760
want to get links to anything we spoke about in

976
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:29,440
this episode, please head over to the show notes at

977
00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:33,800
next levelsoul dot com or slash zero twenty sixty. Now.

978
00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:37,280
If this conversation stirred something in you, there's more waiting.

979
00:56:37,679 --> 00:56:41,119
You can listen to this episode completely commercial free on

980
00:56:41,239 --> 00:56:45,519
Next level Soul TV's app where soul meets streaming. Watch

981
00:56:45,519 --> 00:56:50,679
and listen on Appleios, Android, Apple TV, Ruku, Android TV Buyer,

982
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:56,559
tv LG and Samsung apps anytime anywhere. Begin your awakening

983
00:56:56,920 --> 00:57:00,840
at Next levelsoul dot tv. Thank you so much, for listening.

984
00:57:01,079 --> 00:57:04,719
As I always say, trust the journey. It's there to

985
00:57:04,800 --> 00:57:06,800
teach you. I'll see you next time.