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Award-winning translator, author, poet, teacher, and workshop leader, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is core faculty and Dean at the Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Father Richard Rohr. Her translation for Shambhala Publications of the fourteenth-century contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing received a 46th Georgia Author of the Year Award. Martin Laird calls her translation of Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence “the new standard,” and it was named by Spirituality & Practice to its Best Books List. At the University of Georgia Carmen earned an MA and a PhD in Medieval Studies, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London, she worked with monastic manuscripts in London and Oxbridge libraries and translated homilies by the tenth-century Benedictine abbot, Ælfric of Eynsham, published as God of Mercy: Ælfric’s Sermons and Theology (Mercer University Press). Carmen has been interviewed on the BBC World Service The Compass, NPR Morning Edition, Center for Action and Contemplation’s Everything Belongs, Turning to the Mystics, and Learning How To See, and many other podcasts. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, in the College Writing Programs, and she is often found in the marsh chanting Psalm 46:10 in Old English.

Barbara Whitfield was a researcher at the University of Connecticut Medical School with psychiatry professor Bruce Greyson. Together they researched the after-effects of people who have had a Near-Death Experience. She taught at Rutger's University's Institute for Alcohol and Drug Studies School for 12 years, served on the board and executive board of The International Association for Near-Death Studies and was president of the Kundalini Research Network. She's been a guest expert on Larry King Live (twice), The Today Show, Man Alive, Donahue, Unsolved Mysteries, PM Magazine, Good Morning America, Oprah, Joan Rivers, Sonya Freeman, CNN Medical News, and Alabama Public Television, Imus, and All Things Considered. She also writes self-help books and provides workshops and speaking engagements on topics of recovery, near-death experiences and natural spirituality. Charles L Whitfield MD was a physician, psychotherapist, and internationally recognized expert on mental illness, behavioral problems, and recovery. He was an associate professor of medicine at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for 4 years and then taught medicine and addiction medicine as associate professor of medicine, psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine for eight years. He has been on the faculty of the Rutgers University Summer Institute of Alcohol and Drug Studies since 1978, and in the private practice of medicine and psychotherapy since 1976. He has been voted by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America every year since 1994. Barbara and Charles had a private practice in Atlanta, Georgia helping adults who have been repeatedly traumatized, who are having problems in living, who want to come off of psych drugs and/or opiates, and who may have had a spiritually transformative experience. Books: Dragon Energy: Myth and Reality (New)Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the Near-Death Experience and Other Doorways to Our SoulThe Natural Soul: Unity with the Spiritual Energy that Connects Us: What it Looks like and how It FeelsAFGEs: A Guide to Self-Awareness and ChangeThe Power of Humility: Choosing Peace over Conflict in RelationshipsWebsite: barbara-whitfield.com

Empaths, Empathic Overwhelm, Source Intuition, and the Sacred Work of HealingDave Markowitz explores empaths, empathic overwhelm, and the sacred work of healing ourselves and our world. He shares how trauma, sensitivity, intuition, and our connection with Source can shape the way we experience ourselves and other people. A Source intuitive, bestselling author, healing facilitator, and longtime student of human transformation, Dave draws on decades of experience working with highly sensitive people. He describes his own discovery that he was an empath, how he learned to distinguish his own feelings from what he was absorbing from others, and why he believes many of us are naturally empathic. The conversation explores the deeper roots of empathic overwhelm, including four original wounds and the movement from an early experience of oneness into separation and individuation. Dave explains why simply protecting or shielding ourselves from other people’s energy may address symptoms without addressing the deeper source of the problem. Rick and Dave also discuss trauma, fear, anger and grief; relationships and community; forgiveness; meditation and nonduality; connecting with Source; intuitive guidance; and the importance of allowing difficult experiences to become part of our growth rather than trying to escape them. Dave offers a practical perspective on becoming more resilient without becoming closed off—and on how our own healing can ripple outward, affecting the people and communities around us.

Spiritual Liberation, Memory Reconsolidation, and the End of the Separate SelfMonica Khosla explores spiritual awakening, nonduality, and liberation through the surprising lens of neuroscience and memory reconsolidation. A somatic psychotherapist, she describes a sudden shift during a yoga class in 2009 in which the sense of being a separate self simply fell away. Monica is the author of The First and Last Belief: A Theory of Liberation in the Age of Neuroscience. In this conversation with Rick Archer, she considers whether the apparent end of separation may be understood as the release of a fundamental embodied assumption—an update in the brain’s model of reality rather than the attainment of a special spiritual status. They discuss her early spiritual experiences, her long search through psychology, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, astrology, and nondual teachings, and the quiet, unremarkable character of the shift she calls liberation. Monica distinguishes enduring liberation from transitory spiritual states, challenges common assumptions about enlightenment, and emphasizes that liberation does not make someone perfect, omniscient, or free of ordinary human habits and difficulties. The conversation also explores memory reconsolidation, trauma therapy, predictive processing, consciousness, the nature of perception, the relationship between ancient contemplative traditions and modern neuroscience, free will and responsibility, personal identity, and how spiritual understanding may—or may not—translate into ordinary life. Book: The First and Last Belief: A theory of Liberation in the age of neuroscience Website: nondualitynow.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Hello everyone, who knew and loved Bart, This is Renata Gregori, his wife. My beloved husband left this earth plane on July 27, 2026, due to pneumonia and infection - complications from conditions he was dealing with since the end of last year. He was the best man I’ve ever known. He was my teacher, my confidant, my best friend, the love of my life and my touchstone for all that is good and righteous. I could always count on him to put things in perspective for me and check me, when I was off base. We had a celebration of life at our house in Mexico yesterday and it was so beautiful. Music, laughter, tears and beautiful people. Bart has been laid out at our house for two days. As per his wishes, he will be cremated today. Please continue to contemplate his teachings, read his books and watch his videos. I send my Love to all who knew and loved him and all whose lives he touched. Bart Marshall described his spiritual path as “self-guided eclectic.” It began with a death experience in Vietnam in 1968 and ended in 2004 on an airplane at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic as he returned from a workshop with Douglas Harding. In those intervening years he “turned over every rock” in his quest for a final answer, but counts three teachers as the most influential: Richard Rose, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Douglas Harding. He founded Self Inquiry Group (SIG) in Raleigh, North Carolina and for many years held weekly meetings before stepping back in 2013. Sometimes called “the reluctant guru” by those who know him, Bart nevertheless traveled widely to speak when asked, and teaches retreats and intensives with Deborah Westmoreland (Conscious TV interview) events that proved to be highly transformative for participants. Bart was the author of The Perennial Way: New English Versions of Yoga Sutras, Dhammapada, Heart Sutra, Ashtavakra Gita, Faith Mind Sutra, and Tao Te Ching, and Christ Sutras (Fall 2014), which contains the complete sayings of Jesus from all sources arranged as topical sermons. Interview recorded 11/8/2014

Andrew Cohen (1955–2025) was a spiritual teacher and the founder of EnlightenNext, an organization associated with his teaching of “Evolutionary Enlightenment.” He was a student of H. W. L. Poonja and wrote several books, including My Master Is My Self and Evolutionary Enlightenment. I interviewed Andrew in July 2012. Soon afterward, serious accounts emerged from former students describing a harmful and coercive culture within EnlightenNext. In light of those accounts, I removed this interview from the BatGap site. I have decided to restore it following Andrew’s death, not as an endorsement or a minimization of the harm experienced by former members, but because he appeared to make sincere efforts in later years to confront his behavior and change. These included therapy, ayahuasca work, a willingness to take ordinary jobs when necessary, and participation in the candid documentary How I Created a Cult, which includes difficult testimony from former members and is far from flattering to him. This interview is being made available as a historical record. As always, viewers are encouraged to exercise discernment and form their own conclusions. Books by Andrew Cohen: My Master Is My SelfEnlightenment Is a SecretAn Unconditional Relationship to LifeFreedom Has No History Embracing Heaven & EarthLiving EnlightenmentEvolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path for Spiritual Awakening Interview conducted 7/14/2012

Narcissism, Cult Recovery, Spiritual Awakening, and DiscernmentMark Vicente is an author, speaker, and award-winning Writer/Director/Producer from Johannesburg, South Africa. Taking his first photograph at age four, he worked his way up through the ranks of the camera department, shooting a number of anti-apartheid films in the 1980s before relocating to Hollywood. Because of the atrocities in his native South Africa, he found himself propelled to question fundamental assumptions at a young age: beliefs about human behavior, morality, cosmology, existentialism and mysticism. Unifying his love of science, philosophy and filmmaking, his dream of creating cinema to inspire and provoke thought emerged with the creation of “What the BLEEP Do We Know?!” Later, deeply moved by the violence consuming Mexico, Mark released “Encender el Corazon,” a film about the kidnapping epidemic there and one community’s courage in standing up to the cartels. It was a bittersweet victory. While the film touched many people deeply, it was by association supporting the criminal enterprise NXIVM. Mark made the difficult decision to pull the film from distribution and, with a small band of whistleblowers, exposed NXIVM’s criminal behavior, resulting in multiple arrests and prosecutions. This journey is captured in the HBO Documentary Series “The Vow.” He has since developed a passionate interest in exposing the coercive, duplicitous environments of high-control groups. His feature documentary “Narcissists’ Playbook,” examining malignant narcissism through self-confessed, self-aware narcissists, juxtaposed with testimony from victims, survivors, scientists, and mental health professionals, has now been released. He is also developing “Inst@Guru,” a series examining the rise of predatory self-help culture in the social media age, centered on Dutch social media guru Bentinho Massaro. Websites: markvicente.comNarcissist’s PlaybookBonnie Piesse is an Australian/American actress, singer-songwriter and soul alignment and manifestation coach. She’s best known for her roles in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and was recently seen in My Favorite Girlfriend alongside Tyler Johnson and Michael Nouri. As a singer-songwriter, her music has been featured in film and TV including Miss Arizona, HBO’s The Vow (in which she was also a subject), and CW’s Life Unexpected. Through her business, Your Quantum Life, Bonnie helps soul-led leaders remember who they really are and step into authentic expression and embodiment. Website: bonniepiesse.com

bax (or baxishta if he’s feeling uppity) does not consider himself fully awakened, but knows for sure that he’s recognized glimpses of the self.  He says this puts him in an awkward position and insists on starting off with this apology, if what i’ve seen is true then i’m a hypocrite every time i speak about it no better than the man who having awoken briefly from his dream rushes back to tell his friends what he saw “you’re all in my mind” he  informs  them and they laugh at him twice once for being obviously wrong and once for being right and therefore talking to himself my only defense is that even hypochondriacs do get sick and even hypocrites do awaken briefly bax’s motto is “self is solid”, and he considers himself a student of Ramana Maharshi, whose favorite description of the self was “a dense mass of self-knowledge”.  He considers himself a post-new age thinker, and feels that most of what is discussed today goes only halfway to Shankara’s great ‘three laws of self-knowledge’.  Specifically, much is said about consciousness but not very much about the self itSelf.

Leela Muse is a nonduality guide whose YouTube work explores the life‑affirming process of spiritual awakening and profoundly unowned, ordinary life. Through contemplative dialogues, she emphasizes the art of noticing, radical honesty, and open curiosity, validating the lived experience of seekers while gently challenging assumptions about what awakening is supposed to look like. Leela joins Buddha at the Gas Pump to talk about spiritual awakening, the myths that surround it, and what integration actually looks like in ordinary life. Leela shares her journey from a fundamentalist Christian childhood and years of psychological suffering to an initial awakening experience inspired by Eckhart Tolle, and how that opened into an ongoing, ever-deepening exploration of non-duality. Rick and Leela cover why duality isn't a mistake but simply how non-duality shows up, why emotions and fear don't disappear after awakening, the danger of spiritual bypassing, and why "no self" is a beginning rather than an end point. They also dig into several common myths about enlightenment, including the idea that awakening is a permanent special state, that a person can "become" enlightened, and that understanding concepts is the same as realization.

Seeing the Aura - A New Understanding of the Human Energy FieldKeith is a teacher, author and healing practitioner with expertise in the human energy field, contemplative science and the healing arts. Initially, Keith used meditation as a vehicle to understand and refine subtle states of consciousness. Over the following decade he studied movement, breathwork, bodywork, energy work and other disparate disciplines. During this intensive period, Keith had a series of breakthrough experiences enabling him to see the aura with remarkable clarity. He founded Field Dynamics in 2018 to help individuals with their personal growth and as a platform to exemplify the potential of energy healing. His first book, Radical Reality: How Seeing the Aura Reveals Who & What We Are, is an exploration of how the human energy field informs our understanding of the mind-body connection, consciousness and reality itself.

Ruben is the director of the Flourishing Intelligence Program (FLIP) at Linacre College, University of Oxford. Ruben is also co-director of the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, a Senior Researcher within Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry, and fellow at Linacre College. Ruben has made significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness, meditation, and insight. His work also reveals a pathway towards better and safer artificial intelligence based on the science of consciousness and contemplative wisdom. Ruben has an eclectic contemplative background, including Zen, Advaita, and Theravada, and his first-person inquiry into the nature of reality continues to deeply inform his scientific research, and vice versa.

I didn’t set out to become a spiritual teacher. I was the kid with questions that wouldn’t let go — why are we here, what happens when we die, is this really all there is? At eleven, I had my first spiritual awakening, which introduced me to what I call my Inner Teacher, a wise guiding presence that’s been with me ever since. Those early experiences set me on a long journey across traditions and continents, including several years on a mountaintop in India with a 120-year-old enlightened master. He used laughter, provocation, and paradox to dismantle every spiritual assumption I had — and showed me that real spirituality isn’t about rising above life, but stepping fully into it. What came out of all that is how I teach now: Eastern depth, Western practicality. Spirituality that holds up just as well on a Tuesday afternoon as it does on a meditation cushion. I’m not interested in quick fixes or spiritual highs. Over decades of teaching, I keep coming back to this: you already have an Inner Knowing, an intuitive wisdom that’s been there all along. Most of us have just been talked out of trusting it. My work is about helping you clear what’s in the way — the limiting beliefs, the mental clutter — so you can remember who you are at the deepest level.

Jonathan lived the definition of material excess, twenty-five years climbing the corporate ladder in marketing and technology as a C-level executive, accumulating possessions, and actively avoiding anything spiritual. That was until May 22, 2023. On that day, Jonathan died. His skin turned yellow, his organs failed, and he was gone for three hours. What happened during those three hours wasn’t just a glimpse of white light. He experienced complete immersion in divine consciousness, received profound spiritual teachings and revelations, and was given a choice: stay on the other side or return to share with those ready to awaken. He chose to return. But the being who returned bears no resemblance to the executive who died. Jonathan now helps individuals across the world through speaking engagements, group calls, and private sessions.

Teaching AI to love, the physics of unconditional love, and telepathy with non-speaking autistic people all come together in this lively Buddha at the Gas Pump conversation with neuroscientist and futurist Julia Mossbridge. In this wide-ranging dialogue, we explore unconditional love as a real, foundational force in the universe and what it means for consciousness, time, technology, trauma, and disclosure. Julia describes her working model of universal love as “that which connects,” a fundamental force more basic than space, time, matter, and energy. She explains how unconditional love is the human emotional and motivational state that arises when we become directly aware of this ever-present universal love, and why that experience paradoxically makes us more motivated to improve the world even though “nothing needs to change.” Along the way, she and Rick unpack the difference between unconditional and conditional love, the pitfalls of spiritual bypassing, and the limits of “purification” models in spirituality and healing. They then turn to the ethics and possibilities of “loving AI”: can we create AI systems and robots that genuinely support human well-being and help people access unconditional love, instead of amplifying our polarization and fear? Julia shares the origins of the Loving AI project, her work on Socratic GPT tools for critical thinking, and her leadership in efforts to bring more feminine and marginalized voices into AI, robotics, cognitive science, and consciousness research, including The Synapse women’s conference. Another major theme is time and precognition. Drawing on her neuroscience background, Julia discusses empirical work on precognition and self-transcendence, including how difficult life circumstances can sometimes push people into profound, love-filled states in which they recognize themselves as “the flame, not the candle.” The conversation also dives into “The Telepathy Tapes” and Julia’s research with non-speaking autistic people who communicate via letterboards and keyboards. She outlines why equating speech with intelligence is scientifically and ethically untenable, and how spontaneous telepathy, “the Hill,” and rich inner lives in non-speaking autistic individuals challenge mainstream assumptions about mind, communication, and consciousness. In the later part of the interview, Julia talks about her book “Have a Nice Disclosure,” which reframes disclosure not just as governments revealing secrets about advanced programs or possible non-human intelligences, but as an inner process of truth-telling, healing, and reconciliation. She and Rick explore how collective and personal shadow material is surfacing globally, why genuine disclosure must happen in the heart as well as in institutions, and how unconditional love can hold even the darkest aspects of our history. Julia Mossbridge focuses ruthlessly on developing a deep understanding of love, time, technology, and how these human experiences relate to corresponding physical forces. Her most recent relevant projects include: Creating a Socratic GPT to guide intelligence analysts through the critical thinking process, leading a diverse team of technologists and designers to create a scalable, self-guided digital tool that increases overall wellbeing and is now being developed further within Native American communities, and leading an international group of AI developers and roboticists toward creating an unconditionally loving robot that reduced anger and cognitive load in humans.

Tammy Lee Anderson shares how three profound near-death experiences opened her to unconditional love, spiritual awakening, and a life of service as a psychotherapist, healer, and spiritual medium. In this deep conversation, she describes what near-death really felt like, how it dissolved the fear of death, and how love and awakening can be embodied in daily life through grief, trauma, and ordinary relationships. We explore Tammy’s early near-death experiences in infancy, her memories of being “in between” worlds, and how these experiences invited her into a lifelong journey of surrender into love. She explains why we are not victims of our reality but co‑creators of it, and how even our deepest challenges can expand compassion, forgiveness, and embodied love. Tammy also talks about her unusual background as an Olympic‑level kayaker, 5th degree black belt Aikido teacher, former monastic, and long‑time psychotherapist. She shares powerful stories of working with grief, homelessness, abuse, and trauma, and how her mediumship and healing work now help people reconnect with loved ones in spirit, release fear, and rediscover meaning. If you’re curious about near‑death experiences, life after death, spiritual mediumship, or how to live awake in a dense and sometimes painful world, this conversation offers both inspiration and very grounded wisdom.