Speaker 1: Welcome to the Next Level Soul podcast, where we ask
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this all? There? Is? What is my soul's mission? We
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today's episode. Disclaimer. The views and opinions expressed in this
podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily
reflect the views or positions of the show, its host
or any of the companies they represent. Today we have
Emily Benington on the show. She is both a student
and teacher of contemplative practices for both secular and spiritual audiences.
Her dedication to a Course in Miracles comes from the
extraordinary changes in her own life as a result of
applying its teachings. And Emily and I sat down and
had a wonderful conversation about of course in Miracles, life,
finding your spirituality, finding your intermission, and so much more.
So let's dive in. I like to welcome to the show,
Emily Bennington. How are you doing, Emily, I'm doing well.
Speaker 2: Thanks thanks for having me on your show.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the show. I
truly appreciate it. I wanted you on the show because
we're going to talk about a course in Miracles, and
I know of it. I've I've heard things about it,
but I've really never delved into it very deeply. So,
but before we get into the small book that is
called The Course of Miracles, not two thousand pages, just
a few, it's a few two thousand pages, tell me
about your origin story. How did you get into the
line of work that you're doing.
Speaker 2: Well. Origin stories are always rather lengthy, so I will
keep mine as short as possible. Sure, sometime around twenty ten,
I had a five year old son, and I I
realized that the way I was behaving was making him sad,
and he actually said, Mommy, you make me sad, and
so I realized brutal. So brutal. Kids are so honest,
aren't they. I was just more impatient with him than
I wanted to be. And so I realized in that moment,
when your five year old says that you make them sad,
like you really do need to change something about yourself.
And so that was kind of my wake up moment.
I was like, something in me needs to change, and
so I started looking around for what could I do
to transform myself so that I could show up better
for the people in my life. And that led me
on a spiritual quest. I found a course in miracles,
And almost immediately after finding the course, I knew that
this was my path. I knew that this was truth.
I had grown up in a traditionally Christian home, but
I had left traditional Christianity many years ago. But when
I opened this book, I knew it was the wisest
thing that I had ever read. And I also knew
that it was Jesus. I knew that it was the
Jesus that I loved, the wisdom teacher Jesus. And so
when I found the course, I really dove into it.
And everyone in my family after that was like, we
don't know what you're studying. We don't even want to know.
That book looks very intimidating, but keep doing it because
you are a different person. I was far more loving
and far more kind and far more patient with everyone
in my life, not just my children. And then shortly thereafter,
this was about twenty fourteen. Shortly after about that was
about three years into my study of the course, all
of a sudden I heard this like booming voice in
my head and it said teach, I mean like really loud,
and I couldn't get rid of it. It was just
say one word, and it was just teaching and it
was very loud, and so I knew at that point
I was supposed to teach the course. I had been
a mindfulness trainer, corporate mindfulness trainer up to that point.
Was not looking to leave that career. I loved it,
and yet I knew that God was coming for me.
It or like it or not, God was coming for me.
It was the knock at the door of my mind
that did not go away until I said yes to it.
And so I had the classic surrender moment where I said, okay, fine,
I will I did a lot of bargaining at first.
I said, Okay, I'll teach a course in miracles if
you just let me call it mindfulness, can we do that?
And that just wasn't happening. So I said yes, okay,
I will go wherever you want me to go. And
I know that I knew that if this was God,
if this was truly God entering into my life, then
I would be carried and so I could try. So
I said yes, and I landed on the shore of
a small organization called the Circle of Atonement. Around that time,
I knew that they were doing great work, but they
could do more great work in the world could spread
their message further and deeper. And so I started as
a volunteer a couple of years later in the executive
director and here we are.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, that's an amazing story. Yet children can definitely
be a little too honest. I have. I have a
couple of my own twins, and the other day, a
little while ago, I was I was in the middle
of working out and losing weight and getting into shape,
and one of my youngest daughters like, yeah, Dad, you
know you don't have as much blubber anymore. I'm like,
I'm sorry, what. Yeah, I'm like, well did She's like, yeah,
blubber like the whales, like they have a lot of blubber.
And I'm like, oh my god, that's so brutal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. I said to my son, who's now fourteen.
This is a couple of years ago, but I said,
I need I need the inspiration to continue my exercise program.
And he goes, We'll just to cut your muffin top. Wash, Okay,
but the muffin top.
Speaker 1: But the muffin top is the best part of the muffin.
And I'm meant to be fair, Uh, you're right about that.
There's a commercial like that. It's like there was a
guy who turns to his wife or the wife turns
up like what do I look? Do I have a
muffin top? And he's like, the muffin Top's the best
part of the muffin baby.
Speaker 2: And I was steinfeld about that.
Speaker 1: I think that's the whole thing about that Sun felt.
But uh yeah, I had a very similar experience with
me because I come from the film industry, uh And
I was afraid of opening up next level soul and
going down this road of trying to talk about spirituality
and personal growth and asking these big questions. And I
did a little bit of bargaining as well. I'm like, well,
I'll just do this and I'll do that, and until
I finally decided to go in all in and I go,
you know, one doesn't negate the other and they actually
can work together. And because I have another popular show
in the film industry, a podcast, and I was like, well,
I can see what I can do In the second
I said all right, I'm in the doors flew open
and people like yourself and a litany of other guests
that I have booked now, I mean, like in two
three days, it was magical. I could not even believe.
I just started emailing people. I'm like, y, lets se
if they want to be on the show, and I've
gotten eighty percent yes, is you know? And I'm just like,
what is going on? This is where? By the way,
when I by the way, when I reached out to
them six months ago, when I first when I was
a little bit like in and out, I didn't get
the response that same response is so interesting. It was
just so fascinating. I was like, I can't believe that
this is the second you just put you just go okay,
let's do this.
Speaker 2: Did you have the same like little voice that got loud?
Speaker 1: Oh don't. I don't have a little voice. I have
a very large voice. It's he He's very imposing, and
he just says, I have to do I have to
do what I have to do. And that's one of
the reasons why I started the company and the show
and trying to get the word out there. And it's grown,
I mean, so much faster than my filmmaking podcasts and
my screenwriting podcasts I've ever done. They're probably two of
the largest ones in its industry. But it took a
long time. Took years before I can get real traction,
where now this is happening so fast I can't even
comprehend it, Like it's really pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: That's fascinating because I had this what I called everybody
calls it the divine discontent, like this restlessness.
Speaker 1: Oh yoh, what.
Speaker 2: Am I here to do? Why am I not doing
something with more meaning in my life? Et cetera. And
that was always there until I said yes to that voice,
and then once I said yes, it was like, Okay,
I landed in this place, and that whole restlessness just
is all I feel.
Speaker 1: You feel happier. There's a thing about contentment and being
happy where before you thought things that were important no
longer are important to you, and things that you never
thought would be important become important to you. And there
is this sense of peace that that comes over you.
And I found it at a certain step when I
started teaching through my podcast in the film industry, because
that's where I knew. So I was like, well, I
know this, let me go down this road. And once
I started doing this, so much of my anger went away.
My wife and she's like, I don't know what you're doing,
but obviously you have found what you want, you were
meant to do. Keep doing this, and it kept growing
and growing and growing. And then when I started to
shift to this area of you know, kind of going
down the spiritual path and you know, personal growth and
really trying to help people with trauma and people with
with you know, what they're dealing with in a daily life.
God knows, we all have a lot of trauma in
today's world, the world I've just opened up a lot more,
But I was still fearful, just like you, just like, well,
I don't want to call it a course. I'll call
it mindfulness, you know, I'll call it this and that,
And had very similar effect with spirituality. We'll be right
back after a word from our sponsor, and now back
to the show. You know, because I was raised Catholic,
you know, Roman Catholic, and I've left it, I begin
to how long ago I left that in my life
because I never found it to be made any sense
for me. It might make sense of other people, but
not for me. And I just felt like I needed more.
And this, this this experience that I'm going through right
now has just been so kind of magical. So I
get to now really ask questions about things that I
am really interested in, like a course of miracles. So
can we actually let's look it back on the track.
What is of course in miracles? Who wrote it? How
long has it been around? What is it?
Speaker 2: Okay? So a course in miracles is a spiritual path
in which we find our way home to God by
learning to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal.
So what is real is the beauty and the pure
holiness and the innocence and inestimable worth of our true
nature as God created us. And what is unreal is
everything else, our judgments, our grievances, our attacks. All of
that is unreal. And the only thing that is real
is again our core nature as we were created by God. Now,
the course in its introduction says that it can be
summed up very simply in this way. So the course,
as we've been saying, is a two thousand page, five
pound book, but it can be summed up very in
three lines. Nothing real can be threatened, and nothing unreal exists.
Here in lies the peace of God. And so what
we learn as course students is a process of disciplining
our mind to see beyond what our senses and our
feelings tell us is true about the other person. We
look to see beyond that through the true, the core
nature of who they are, and from that place, from
seeing them as they truly are, we can love them.
And that's what miracles are in a course in miracles,
So if you're studying a book called a Course in Miracles,
it's helpful to know how miracles are defined, and in
the course, they are defined as expressions of love that
have a healing effect on the other person, because we
all know nothing heals like love, and that in turn
heals us. And so it's a beautiful path.
Speaker 1: In your opinions, Because I've always been the been of
of mind that when something negative comes towards you, let's
say a person, let's say a negative a troll online
which I'm sure you've probaked out with at one point
or another, being a person who's out in the public eye,
or you know, somebody in a line somewhere at the supermarket,
or someone cuts you off. And when that kind of
energy comes toward towards you, I always found it to
be a reflection of something inside of me that I
might have to work on, whether that be an anger,
a resentment, or something that I have to work on,
and this person is there to kind of trigger that
in you, because I just found that that to be
the true for me, and talking to other spiritual leaders
and other seekers as well, they found that as well.
I was just curious about your opinion.
Speaker 2: Of that, well, what I love about the course, and
you mentioned that you're a lapsed Catholic, right, And I
also I came from from traditional Christianity. I grew up Presbyterian.
And one of the reasons why although I went into
Baptism at Baptist Church, and one of the reasons why
I left was because I could never really resign myself
to the core nature of original sin, Like I could
never really understand why, like underneath it all, if God
really created us, why would he create us with flaws?
God can't create with flaws. God could only create perfection.
And so I could never understand the whole concept of
underneath it all, underneath all of these behaviors, underneath all
the troll ish etcetera that you're talking about, like that
there's just a original sin, miserable sinner in there. I
always thought that underneath it all, we were just pure
goodness and the work of spirituality was to release the
blocks through that goodness so that it could just come through.
And so what I tell myself when I'm faced with
some form of attack or judgment from someone else is
that again, beyond those behaviors is the core nature of
goodness in them. That is true. And that's what I
try and see. And what I love about the course
as a path is that the way in which we forgive,
the main teaching of a course in miracles is forgiveness.
And the way we forgive is not to kind of
chew on what the other person did, make it real
and then try and let it go. The way we
forgive is we look at what the other person did
as an error, not a sin. When they did that
thing or did that thing, they were out of touch
with their core nature. And so it's our job to
see that truth in them and to love them anyway right,
to love them anyway beyond the behaviors that they display,
and that our love will bring out that goodness in them.
And so what we tend to try and do when
we're faced with these tough situations and tough and challenging
people is we try and judge and attack and obligate
and control them into the behaviors that we want. And
what the course teaches is you love them. That's how
you ultimately get the behavior that you want out of them.
And if they aren't willing to behave in the way
that you want, it doesn't matter because your core nature
isn't affected either way. So you're not clinging to them
so much if you don't need the other person to
behave the way that you want them to so much,
And so there's just a tremendous amount of release and
not getting so hooked into the tiny and large grievances
that we all face each day. And when you're not
so hooked into those grievances, you live with more peace
and use.
Speaker 1: Well. I mean, I think that you know, as I've
been walking around the earth a few years now, I've
noticed that most people, when people behave in a certain way,
it is because of some sort of trauma they've gone
through in their life, whether it was when they were children,
when it was later something that they're looking for, you know,
because when you're so angry, angry comes from sort of trauma,
sort of being disconnected from your from your source. Because
someone who's really connected to who they are understands who
they are, are at peace with who they are, don't
act in that fashion. You know, if you could look
at spiritual leaders obviously who master that those are the masters,
but generally speaking that they don't. They're just disconnected. And
I remember I was an angry I was so angry
when I was younger, very angry and bitter person because
I couldn't achieve the dream that I wanted. And when
I couldn't achieve it, I would be very angry at
those who were around me, and it was very brutal
to me. And I just understood there was such an
anger and because of that trauma that I had been
dealt earlier in my career. That but I think that love,
at the end of the day is what solves everything.
I mean at the end of the day. I mean,
it does solve everything a one way shape or form.
It's not easy. It's not easy.
Speaker 2: Interesting what you say that the part of the anger
came from not being able to achieve the dream that
you wanted in the world. And I'm a big believer.
It's a cliche, but I'm a big believer. And when
the door closes, the window open. Oh absolutely, And so
when you listened, like that voice you listened to that
opened the windows that created the situation that was beyond
what you were even dreaming about. That's when you can
start to that's when you really start to develop faith
and trust because you know that you're being guided through
life in a way that allows for external circumstances to
work out in ways that you couldn't have planned and predicted.
But what you find is that it's the best thing
for you in the end.
Speaker 1: There's no question about it. And I've in my experience,
nothing that I've planned to ever come exciting. It just
never works out like you want to. You're like, and
when something really bad happens, at the moment, you feel
it's bad, but then six months later, or a year later,
or many years later, you go, my god, that was
the best thing that I didn't get, Like, I almost
got on a reality show and I was devastated when
I was made it like almost to the very end
and I didn't get on. I'm like, oh, I thought
it was the end of the world. And then years
later I'm like, dodge the bullet. I didn't get on
that thing. Oh my god. But you know, to give
you an example, is that, you know, the anger of
not being able to follow that dream. Will be right
back after a word from our sponsor, and now back
to the show, is it?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: I wanted to get access to these people, very high
people in my industry, in the film industry, so big
producers and directors and writers and things like that, And
it was just there was a desperation in me. It
was It's like you could smell it spewing off of me,
and I just wanted to get access to these these
you know, many legends and masters of their craft. Of course,
there was no chance of me getting that. Fast forward
years later, I have a podcast and now they're asking
me to talk to me for an hour, and now
I get to sit down and ask them every question
I've ever wanted to ask them, and give access to
that same conversation to millions of people around the world.
And I sit there going, I can't believe I get
to talk to this person or that person, or this
Oscar winner or this you know, this writer of my
favorite television show of all time, And oh, my god,
like how luck. But it was. But if you would
have told me this when I was in film school,
I would have said you're absolutely you know so, I said,
first of all, what's podcasting? But secondly, because it didn't exist,
then I went with you.
Speaker 2: Everything I tried to plan just never worked out, and
the things that were unplanned have been the best things
have ever happened in my life.
Speaker 1: No question. Now, let me who wrote the Course of Miracles?
Is it a combination? Who's who's the author of it?
Speaker 2: Right? You did ask me that earlier. I'm sorry I
didn't didn't get to that part of your question.
Speaker 1: No words.
Speaker 2: The Course of Miracles was candled, and it was scribed
by a woman named Helen Chuckman from nineteen sixty five
to nineteen seventy two, and it was published in nineteen
seventy six originally. And when I I say it was
described by Helen but channeled. The author of A Course
of Miracles claims to be Jesus. And I know that
many students find that to be outrageous and so unbelievable. Sure,
but at the same time, we've had so many students
just like me who have picked up this book, opened it,
read a couple pages and recognized this is the Jesus
that I know and love. This isn't the Jesus on
the cross. This isn't the Jesus who's judgmental or vengeful
or someone to be afraid of. This is the Jesus
who just very kindly and gently wants to guide us
home through true perception of each other, back to God.
Speaker 1: Now there's a very famous Yogi Paramansa Yogananda who's a
very big fan of Jesus and said that Jesus may
have been crucified in one day, but his teachings have
been crucified for thousands of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know it's true. And Gandhi said, oh, Christians,
you are so unlike your christ right.
Speaker 1: It's like it was like, I'm going to the Crusades.
I'm going to kill you because you don't believe in Jesus.
Like it's like, yeah, disconnect, Am I the only one
that sees this.
Speaker 2: Oh, Jesus came in. We strongly believe Jesus came in
originally with a beautiful vision of an unconditionally loving God
that was meant to counter this view of God as
vengeful and wrathful. And so Jesus, Jesus, the radical nature
of Jesus that he came in with this new vision
of God, and he got killed for it, and the
message never took off. It's two thousand years later, and
there are threads of Jesus's message of unconditional love that
have gone through time. I really believe that Polstoy got it,
Gandhi got it, Martin Luther King got it, Saint Francis
got the true nature of love, the message that Jesus
came to give us. But in general, it's been very
misunderstood and misinterpreted. And the course we believe is a
correction for that.
Speaker 1: Now. And why do you think his teachings have been
so massacred over the years. I mean, it's just like
such a like we were just joking, was disconnect from
his original ideas of love and a loving God, of
divine God that I always found it really interesting. I'm like,
how can a god be vengeful? And that means it's
pure ego? Like you mean, our God is so so
egocentric that if you don't worship me in the way
that I say, you're I'm going to be vengeful towards you.
Like that makes no sense even on a logical standpoint,
you know, it just makes no sense.
Speaker 2: Well, it does make sense if you realize, like, it's
really hard to forgive unconditionally, oh right, when we feel
like someone you mentioned trauma, When we feel that we
have been deeply hurt and traumatized by someone, typically what
comes to mind first and the feeling and the emotion
that we sit with is how hurt we are and
how much we want to get back at the person
who hurt us. And so that there's something in our
ego core nature of the course calls it ancient hate.
We come into these bodies with this certain amount of
ancient hate. And so what better way to sanction your
hate and to get approval of your hate towards someone
else then to have a God that is also wrathful.
And so if God is wrathful, and if God is
saying these are the in group and this is the
out group, then it sanctions our desire to do the same.
So then we get to say you're in, you're out,
and I'm going to enact revenge on you, and it's
okay because God's doing it too. It's a lot harder
to in the face of an attack, and no one
faces more attack than Jesus, right, I mean, he was
crucified in the most horrific, brutal way, and even in
the face of that, he displayed unconditional love. Forgive them, Father,
for they know not what they do. And so we
find that message beautiful, and at the same time, we
find it very difficult to enact in our own lives
in the ways in which we're crucified in little ways
every day, like someone cuts us off in traffic and
we kind of get upset. And so unconditional love is hard.
And so if you want to hold on to the
grievance and the judgment, give it to God and he'll
sanction that behavior in you as well.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned the ego, which is one of my
favorite conversations to have about ego because it's it's something
we all have it. I don't care who you are,
even even if you're a spiritual master on this in
this lifetime, you still have ego. Some have mastered the ego,
most have not. Why do you believe that, or how
does the ego or why does the ego demand almost
a separation of a separation from others, Like it's me
versus the world as opposed to we're all connected, we're
all together, and there's always that need to separate to
make themselves look bigger. All this kind of stuff the ego,
like how when you're saying, like, when someone cuts you off,
that's an offense to my ego. You know it shouldn't be,
but it's an offense, like how dare you cut me off?
Don't you know who I am? I always love that.
If anyone says that to me, I was like, Wow,
you're far gone, sir.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And this is such a great topic, the ego,
because we all have one. I believe that when it
comes to the Holy Spirit, we all share the universal
Spirit of God. It's equal in all of us, no
matter who we are or what we've done. But when
it comes to the ego, the course does we make
one ego for ourselves. And so that's why certain things
that are triggering to me may not be triggering to you.
And that kind of thing. And so our ego is
unique to us, and we turn the dial up and
down on it based on what's going on in our
own mind. But the course, from a course perspective, the
ego is always something to do whatever you can to
get rid of. And so the reason why I say
that is because in spirituality today there is there's so
much teaching, and it doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just
different than what the course teaches. The course teaches that
the ego, its core nature is attack. It is never
out to help you. And so that whole discussion of well,
I just have to make friends with my ego, I
just have to dance with my ego because it's the
thing that keeps me safe. From a course perspective, the
ego will never keep you safe because it's always the
thing that wants to separate from other people. It's always
that it's core nature is attack again, and so it's
always going to want to puff you up at the
expense of someone else. And that's what makes it so dangerous.
And so that to me, when you think, okay, the course,
does the coordinator the problem. All the problems in our
world come down to the ego, and the ego comes
down to separation, and separation is I'm above and you're below.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 2: And so when you look around at the world and
you say, okay, so if every problem, every conflict is
caused by the ego, which is separation above and below
trying to be above everything. It's like you just put
on these glasses and everything makes sense. All of the
conflict in our home, the conflict in our work, all
the way up to war, comes down to above and below.
And so if we can just eradicate that and have
a spiritual path that says no, no, no, no, the only
thing true about you is what God put there, and
that's equal in absolutely everyone. So then we start to
have a conversation about how we're this same versus how
we're different. And that's when we really start to hail
our planet.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is the beauty of being. I guess
there's a beauty of animal life and nature. If you
look at animals, animals don't have ego. You know, you
don't see one wolf, one wolf trying to say I'm
a much. I mean, yes, there's territorial things, but that's more,
but not like in the way that we do it
that we have to puff ourselves up and make ourselves
look so much bigger. I mean, it's kind of like
even the ego in the spiritual space, because you see
a lot of even you know, quote unquote spiritual masters
is like, you know, I'm so much more spiritual than you.
I'm like the most spiritual.
Speaker 2: Like you know, It's like there's ego even in humility.
Speaker 1: It's like I am the humblest, i am the humblest.
I'm so much more humble than you are, Emily, I'm
so much more humble than the I'm the humblest person
you'll ever meet.
Speaker 2: Like, and it's still trying to put yourself above through humility. Yeah,
and that's what I'm talking about. That that's when you
start to see, Okay, this is what the ego does.
It separates and puts above. Then you start to see
it everywhere, and then when you realize, okay, that's the problem,
then we can uproot it at its foundation.
Speaker 1: So what is the ego? Body illusion? Which I saw
inside of the course of miracles? Is there? Can you
kind of dive into that topic a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as I was saying before, the only thing real,
ultimately real, is our core nature as we were created
by God. So our your innocence, our dignity, our worth,
our holiness as children sounds of God, and so everything
else is false. Well, everything else that's false includes the body. Ultimately,
these bodies we know they die, so they can't be real.
You don't even have to be a core student to
know that the body dies, so it can't be real.
And so what what the ego does is it tells
you that your identity is in this body, and therefore
it does everything it can to kind of protect the
sanctity of this body. And what we're doing when we
just take the foundation of the ego away is we
say that, you know, the ultimately the body isn't real,
and so I don't have to spend so much time
trying to defend and protect this body. Now that doesn't
mean that you know, walk out in front of traffic
or anything, but it does mean that there is tremendous
freedom in recognizing that your your source isn't your body.
Because bodies age, they decay, they get sick, they get injured,
and so when your sense of self isn't so wrapped
up in the body, then you're freer in how you
move through the world.
Speaker 1: So and that's why it's so difficult for actors, models
and people who are known for their body. As time
goes on and they fight the you know time, they
become more and more depressed where and even in society,
like you know, you know, you know the New Sex
and the City spin off that just came out, Like,
you know, they're in their fifties. They look like they're
women in their fifties. That's okay. They're not supposed to
look like they look like in their twenties, and yet
you know they're demonized for it, and men men get
a little bit of a pass. But generally speaking, you know, men, men.
Speaker 2: Men are allowed to age.
Speaker 1: Men are allowed to age, no question. Yeah, Sean Connery
looked very dapper when he was older, and but women
are not. But even then, even men who you know,
at one point what were the stud and the you know,
perfect body and all that stuff that that all deteriorates.
It's impossible to keep that to the end. Everything deteriorates,
it all goes away. So it's always it's always fascinating,
like the ego that you build up in your twenties,
thirties and even forty, when you start getting into your fifties,
you know, nature takes its course. You could do you
could hold off with some surgery and you know, eating
very well and taking care of yourself, but at a
certain point, you know you're gonna look like your age
you know, unless you're Jane Fonda. Uh right, we no
share share share looks she obviously drinks baby's blood.
Speaker 2: There's no question in my mindorneers she is.
Speaker 1: There's I don't understand she's she's I think she's a vampire.
But uh but for everybody else, it's so true. And
and and I would love to hear your thoughts on
you know, you were just talking about the ego and
the body, and and and the ego needing to identify
itself with the body, and how it's so important to
the ego the world that we live in today in
social media, it's all about what we look like, how
we're you know, the body and the filters and and
and almost putting out this false image of who you
are in the world. You know. Social media, in my opinion,
has been very is a tool like any other. It
could be used for real good, but it could also
destroy a hammer, could build a house that could also kill,
you know, So it all depends on how it's used.
But what do you think is happening to our society,
especially this new generation coming up? Who you know, I
thank god I didn't have social media when I was
a teenager.
Speaker 2: My god, and one of the comparison traps are hard
enough when you're a teenager.
Speaker 1: You have thirty other people. Yeah, well, you have thirty
other people in your classroom. It's rough. Imagine having three
hundred thousand or three million other people to compare yourself with.
Speaker 2: It's no. I know, it's difficult and challenging. And I,
like so many others, have read the statistics, particularly about
how social media affects teenage girls and the depression and
anxiety that it causes when you look at your not
so great life compared to other people's curated, fabulous life,
and it creates that disconnect and a lot of stress results.
And so I certainly feel for that. You know, you were,
you were mentioning Sex in the City, and I just
have to say I was reading before I came to
this podcast today article. And I don't know if this
is true. I didn't actually look it up, but the
women on Sex in the City are the same age
as the Golden Girls.
Speaker 1: Yes they were, they were. Blanche was mind blowing. No
Blanche who was the sex whenever with the sex fiend
in the Golden Girls. They Betty White was fifty five there.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, if you want to even be your mind
even blown more. Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, who said
he's too old for this scrap. He was forty seven.
He's my age and he was playing fifty five but
he was forty seven. Yeah, just like looking I'm like, oh,
oh my god.
Speaker 2: Well I'm forty five, and I think everyone on Sex
and the City looks like amazing, Like I can only
hope to look like that now. But anyway, the point is,
as I was saying before, that what the ego will
tell you to do is to hook into your looks
and your status, and your things, your possessions, and your relationships,
who you know as your sense of identity and worse
and what social media does. You mentioned it can be
used as a tool of good or ill, But typically
what you see, at least you know, as we were scrolling,
we see all the ways in which our lives don't
measure up to again, the curated lives of those that
we follow, and so so what you have to develop
these days is an attitudinal musculature to have the discipline
to say, this person, while their life looks amazing and
while they are beautiful, the truth of who they are
is their holiness, and so we look to see beyond
the form to the holiness. And so when you can
do that with a life that you admire, then you
work that muscle and it becomes easier to do in
challenging situations where you know you're not looking at the
other person so favorably. And so what we're looking, what
we're trying to do as spiritual students is to kind
of get away from this game of life where it
is about who you know and how you look and
what you have beyond that to the goodness and the
equality of all of us. And honestly, that's the only
thing that that's going to heal our world.
Speaker 1: At this point, we'll be right back after a word
from our sponsor, and now back to the show. Yeah,
it was. I always say that I've never seen a
hearse with a U haul behind it. I mean, you
can't take it with you, and it's all it's but
it's true because at the end of the day, you
accumulate all this stuff and it makes you feel better
and you're walking around and you're like, oh, look at
this or look at that, And I've slowly detached myself
from my possessions to a certain point where I'm like,
if I lose that, it's okay. It's just a thing,
you know, if and it's a it's a it's a
It's taken me a long time to do that because
I used to be a collector. I used to collect
comic books. I used to collect I used to be
collectors of a ton of stuff when I was a kid.
And I was like, up until recently, up until right
before the pandemic, I had I don't know, probably ten
long boxes of comic books, and I've been carrying them
since I was a kid and collecting. But I hadn't
been to a comic book store in ten years. And
every time I moved, I lugged the thing out and
and I just sat there one then like I don't
even look at these. I'm let me sell them and
invest the money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, and I did.
Speaker 1: And I did, and I was like, I felt so
much lighter. And I kept one or two that were
like emotional, I felt emotional towards like I remember the
story behind it. Even if I lost those tomorrow, it's
not like I look at it every day. Even if
I lost those tomorrow, I'll be like it. It's okay,
I have my memory of it. But it's an art.
It's it is an art for it. It isn't work
to detach yourself from the material world. And that's just
one example. From the body to other people, to the
physicality of the world. Every this is a very intoxicating environment.
This is the matrix. This is the matrix. We are
in the matrix. It's extremely it's extremely intoxicating. But we're
trying to get back to the real world. This is,
in my opinion, not the real world. And I know
a lot of people you know, out there, like, what
do you talk about? This is the real world? Like,
you know, that's just my opinion.
Speaker 2: There's a concept in the course called the real world, okay,
And from a course perspective, the real world is only
the love in the world and everything else doesn't exist.
And it actually has this kind of fascinating concept. I
don't understand it fully, but that the only things that
are saved from our lives here is the love that
we give. And so it calls it the treasure house.
And so some somewhere the love that we've expressed in
this world is stored for us, and we will access it.
We can't access it. And again I don't understand that concept.
But when I think about it in relation to what
you're saying about, like comic books, and I've collected magazines too,
so I know that whole thing as well. But what
if what we really collect is our acts of kindness?
What if what we collect is the love that we give.
What if that it really is collected for us and
that's the only thing that survives. If we thought, Okay,
I want to collect kindness, so therefore I'm going to
act with kindness throughout my every day. Again, what a
different world we would have. It's a whole lot more
satisfying than comic books and magazines.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting because I don't know if you ever
saw this. This was a there was a study done
where they gave like a hundred They gave like ten
people one hundred dollars, and they had twenty people one
hundred dollars. Ten of them get to keep the hundred dollars.
Ten of them had I had to give it give
it away, uh, to a stranger on the street. And
when they brought everybody back, people who are the happiest
were the people who gave up money away and it's
in it's ingrained in our DNA because honestly, if you
don't give, the tribe doesn't continue. That if you want
to go back to prehistoric times, the tribe doesn't continue.
If you if you don't know how to cooperate, you
don't live. You're the saber tooth tiger that's gonna get
you know, the saber doors, No saber tooth thing, you
know what I'm talking about. The lion's gonna get you. Something's
gonna get you. So the concept of giving you there's
endorphins that are released when you give. Feels so good
to give, it feels natural to give. And in my life,
the moment I stopped trying to take from the world
and get what I wanted and started to give to
the world what I wanted to give them, the doors
opened in ways that I can't even comprehend. Like I
told you earlier, with my show, and the second I
started to give back to my community, to give back
to the people in the form of shows and education
and everything that I do, my life changed, and it's
been it changed six and a half About six and
a half years ago when I started my first podcast,
my humble, first little podcast, and now it is now
my life. This is what I love to do, and
I've not given up on other parts of what I
want to do in my life, but this is like,
oh no, I feel too good doing this. It feels
I don't know if you've had this experience, but someone
walks up to you at an event or after you
speak or something, and they go, you changed my life.
Your book changed my life. Your teaching has changed my life.
Your podcast changed my life. Something changed that is addictive.
It's extremely addictive.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned the study about giving one hundred dollars.
There's also a study about our happiness. To that point,
scientists have been trying to figure out, Okay, why are
some people just more happy than others, and what can
we do to bottle it, to make to spread it
around so that we're happier as a society, because you know,
if you look at the data, we're pretty depressed. And
what they've found was that there are that you can
actually elevate your happiness, and we have a happiness step point,
and we can do things like get a new job
or win the lottery, and but that fades and we
bounce back to our set point, right, or we can
become depressed, we can lose a spouse, or lose our job,
or lose a bunch of money and that phase and
then we bounce back to our happiness step point. So
what is it that like actually makes us happier to
where we can stick at a higher level of happiness.
And what they learned was drum roll altruism. It's giving
things away, it's standing for something bigger than just yourself.
And that is consistently when we are in that practice
of giving that we become happier. And it's the only
thing scientists have found that actually makes us happier in
a way that sticks.
Speaker 1: You know. It's it's fascinating because we give. We're so
much happier when we give. We give away. And you see,
I use movie stars because I'm more I know that
part of the world. Uh that when movie stars have rich,
they're rich, they're famous, they have you know, perfect bodies
according to society, they have all the success that can
ever want. And many of these people who I've met
are very unhappy, very sad.
Speaker 2: Of course, because their happiness is contingent upon the disconnection
they're disconnected.
Speaker 1: Well, right, they're they're disc they're disconnected. And I've talked
to Oscar winners who's like, after they won the Oscar,
I'm like, I was depressed. I didn't know what else
to do. Like, once you reach the pinnacle of the industry,
according to what the industry says, you just go, what
do I do now? I don't know what to do
with myself? And and that's why, you know, you see
these rock stars and you see these you know, rich
you know, athletes who destroy themselves, and you see them
self destruct publicly. Some don't make it, some do, you know,
and make it out the other end. But it is,
it's really really interesting. I think Jim Carrey said it.
Jim Carrey is such an interesting character, not only because
of his talent as an actor and a comedian, but
he said, I wish everybody in the world could get
everything they wanted so they would understand it's not the answer. Yeah,
and you're like're so deep, so like, oh, that makes One.
Speaker 2: Of the most interesting instagrams that I follow is Paulina Porskova.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you, Oh yeah, I just saw
a video with her the other day. She's like, I'm
fifty five, I thought, right.
Speaker 2: So so for those of us who grew up reading
fashion magazines in the nineties, her and the Cindy Crawfords
and the Naomi Campbell's were like it just the height
of beauty. And Paulina she's fifty.
Speaker 1: Five now, Yeah, she says she's fifty five. She's about
a few years older than j Loo, okay, and people
are comparing her to Jlo and she's like, I don't
look like Jlo. Jlo is again another anomaly of.
Speaker 2: She's a freak of nature.
Speaker 1: She's also another freak of nature. Yeah, but Paulina said
that she's like, I'm fifty five. I don't see anybody
my age out there, and it's like you either, j Loo.
And then the next time you see someone it's Betty
White like and everything between is just not accept that
we don't want to see you.
Speaker 2: What's interesting about Paulina's Instagram is that she's so publicly
grappling with this idea. So, here is someone and this
speaks to your experience in Hollywood. Here is someone who
has been celebrated her whole life for the way that
she looks. And these looks fade. They just do men
or women, And so what happened when you're not turning
heads and getting opportunities the way that you once did.
If your sense of identity and worth is hooked into
how you look, you're going to struggle with that.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 2: And again, what makes Paulina's account so fascinating is that
she's so publicly struggling with this. But you can avoid
that struggle altogether. You can save yourself a lot of pain.
Paulina herself calls she has nicknamed herself the crying woman
of Instagram. You can stop crying if you're not so
identified with how you look. You can stop crying if
you find another source beyond this body for your happiness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she seems to be fighting fighting this idea
because she once of her She wants to be able
to grow old gracefully. But yet she's still holding on
and on a subconscious level to what she was. And
by the way, for everyone listening, it's not just beauty.
It could be your career, your careers or identity. It
could be uh married, your marriage, your career.
Speaker 2: Here's a spouse and you lose your identity.
Speaker 1: You skill. There's so many different things that you can
associate like this is what you associate yourself with. But
everything fades, and one way from everything fades. Your career
will fade, your your your looks will fade, your health
will fade, your relationship. They will die eventually, or you
will die eventually. It all fades. But the only thing
that doesn't is that internal connection. If you find that
internal connection with yourself and the value of who you
are as a spiritual being, that goes along the entire path,
and that should tell you that that is the real
and the rest is not. In ten thousand years, I
always tell people who get so caught up in my business,
I'm like, dude, in ten thousand years, no one's going
to watch your movie. You'll be a footnote if you're lucky.
The giants of our industry, Like you know, Clark Gable
was the biggest movie star in the world nine ten
out of ten. People on the street unless they're of
a certain age, no idea who he is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. I look at what the Beatles did
in the sixties. Look at how the whole world kind
of like tilted towards the Beatles. I asked my son
the other day. I was like, do you know who
Paul McCartney is, And he's like.
Speaker 1: No, eventually, And by the way, let's using the Beatles
as an example. The Beatles basically dented the world. I mean,
what they've done with their music is beyond comprehension. I'm
a huge fan of the Beatles. My kids are fans
of the Beatles. Not because we're playing the music and
we're kind of pass sing it along, but you're talking
about the beat like basically the biggest band of all time,
the most popular band of all time, and they will fade.
They will fade eventually, maybe some trickles of it will
will live on. And I think the core message of
what the Beatles said with love love is love. Paul
McCartney said, like, I don't know, like ninety five percent
of our songs are about love. You know, he goes
that's that was the message that they put out there.
When you won't you won't hear the same thing about
And I'm not going to bash Elvis, but Elvis or
other artists of that of that generation, the Beatles still stick,
and you know, they still stick, and whether you like
them or hate them. They did dent the world, you
know they did. They made a difference, but they will
fade as well. But their message of love, I hope doesn't.
And that's where that music is. I think that's why
it holds so much, because it's about it's essentially about love.
Love is all you need.
Speaker 2: All you need is love.
Speaker 1: All you need is love. All you need is love.
Speaker 2: Now Jesus message too.
Speaker 1: So you see it's good. It's good. Mark Jesus needed
a better PR person. I mean, seriously, that's the problem.
Just Jesus don't have a good PR person.
Speaker 2: So in that whole like thread that I was saying earlier,
like tool Stoy say, for instance, and Gandhi and Martiny's
are king, we'll just beat the.
Speaker 1: P Paul McCartney and John Lennon, you know, and and
then Paul and Ringo, everybody, the whole, the whole, the four,
the the fabulous four fab four as well. Now I'm
gonna ask you a couple of questions. I'd love to
ask all of my guests, what is your mission in
this life?
Speaker 2: In short, my mission is to help, of course and
miracles become one of the world's great spiritual traditions.
Speaker 1: And what is your and and why are we here
as a as a as humans, as a as a
species to learn.
Speaker 2: To transcend our ego and to love and that's how
we find our way home to God. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Great, great answers to both those answers. Emily, thank you
so much for being on the show. I really appreciate
you taking the time out and it was an absolute
joy and pleasure talking to you. And continue the good
work you're.
Speaker 2: Doing, my dear, Thank you so much. It was an
honor to be here.
Speaker 1: Corse and Miracles is a very powerful text and I
recommend everybody listening to definitely check it out. If you
want to get links to anything we spoke about in
this episode, please head over to the show notes at
next levelsoul dot com or slash zero twenty sixty. Now.
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As I always say, trust the journey. It's there to
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