Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #52 - 31DEC11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A New Years Eve conversation with Jim Dreaver. Jim, a native of New Zealand, was on a spiritual journey for twenty years, beginning in 1975 with the teachings of J. Krishnamurti. Then he met European non-dual master Jean Klein in 1984, and under his guidance finally awakened to freedom—freedom from the “I,” the “me,” and all its stories—in the spring of 1995. His mission now is to guide others to the same realization, but in a much shorter time. He teaches at Esalen Institute, in Los Angeles, and elsewhere and also offers private sessions.

    His book, end your story. Begin your life… Mastering the Practice of Freedom (Hampton Roads, paperback, $16.95) is now available. He has also published The Ultimate Cure: The Healing Energy Within You (Llewellyn, 1995), his first book on spiritual transformation, which was translated into 4 languages, and The Way of Harmony (Avon, 1999), a guide to dealing with relationships, work, and daily life in a conscious way, written just after his awakening. He has also written a novel, Falling into Light, about a young boy’s spiritual journey.

More information about Jim Dreaver's work can be found at:

Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #51 - 24DEC11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A new Christmas Eve conversation with Kenny Johnson, founder of This Sacred Space. Kenny spent over twenty years in prison and has been out of prison since 1997. He is a spiritual teacher and consultant to families and to those who have been out of prison and may be going to jail. He also just published his acclaimed book, The Last Hustle, chronicling his years as a criminal and how he was transformed while incarcerated. Kenny has one passion and that is sharing the message that “God’s Grace Is Here Now.” Kenny’s spiritual awareness and other spiritual teachers' insights have been published in the book, The Awakening West, by John Lumiere-Wins and Lynn Marie Lumiere.

More information about Kenny Johnson's work can be found at:

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #50 - 17DEC11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A Discussion with Laura Duggan, author of An Inquiring Life: Weekly Contemplations. Laura is the founder of Nicasio Press, was the head of the Muktabodha Institute that translates sacred Indian texts into English, was a student of both Muktananda and Chidvilasananda, and now studies with Tibetan Nyingma lineage teacher, Anam Thubten, in Richmond, CA.

More information about Laura Duggan's work can be found at:

Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #49 - 10DEC11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A Discussion with Steve Volk, author of Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable—and Couldn’t, published by HarperOne, and available now in bookstores and online. Steve Volk is a longtime staff writer and regular contributor to Philadelphia magazine. His work has been published in Rolling Stone, Vibe, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, The New Republic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The St. Petersburg Times. Volk has received dozens of state and local journalism awards, and he has appeared on numerous radio and television talk shows in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He lives in Philadelphia.

More information about Steve Volk's work can be found at:

Saturday, December 3, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #48 - 03DEC11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick reads a chapter, "Krishnamurti versus Gurdjieff," from his upcoming book.
  • A Discussion with Jim Wilson. Jim has a background in East Asian Buddhist studies, is a member of a local Quaker Meeting, has been a Prison Chaplain, and spends much of his free time these days writing poetry. In this segment, we discuss one of the original non-dualists of the Christian tradition, writing long before non-dualism was cool: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, was a Christian theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, the author of the Corpus Areopagiticum (before 532). His surviving works include Divine Names, Celestial Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and various epistles.

More information about Jim Wilson's work can be found at:

Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #47 - 26NOV11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt discuss a variety of topics:
    • Is Landmark Education a spiritual practice, service to humanity, or something beyond?
    • Work of the Week: The Time Lord Exercise
    • Intention and Spiritual Practice
    • Reading from Rob's upcoming book, "Passion for the Great Vigil of Living and Dying"

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #46 - 19NOV11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick reads excerpts from his upcoming book and other sources:
    • A Parable
    • Why the English Cannot Awaken
    • Rackets
    • Discipleship and Vulnerability

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #45 - 12NOV11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt discuss the concept of Integrity as elaborated in the Landmark Education system.
  • A Discussion with Brindivan Callahan. Brindivan Callahan has been a devotee and disciple of the late, great spiritual teacher Lee Lozowick for twenty years. Brinda has been responsible for the operation of the Hohm Community ashram in France, Ferme de Jutreau, since 1996. She conducts seminars on conscious parenting, and other topics. Before moving with her then-husband and two children to Arizona to work with Mr. Lozowick, Brinda studied with E.J. Gold, Robert Daniel Ennis, and Mike McDonnell here in California.

More information about the work of HOHM Community can be found at:

Saturday, November 5, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #44 - 05NOV11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Robert Schmidt focuses on "Steadfastness and Faithfulness in Spiritual Practice" with readings from:
    • The Parrot Jataka Tale
    • Wild White Goose - the diary of female Zen Master Jiyu-Kennett Roshi on her training in Japan
    • Sufi Tales as recorded by Idries Shah
    • Halfway Up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment Mariana Caplan

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #43 - 29OCT11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A discussion with Joko Dave Haselwood. Joko Dave Haselwood is a Soto Zen priest and guiding teacher of Empty Bowl Sangha in Cotati, California. A Dharma heir of Jisho Warner, Haselwood is also an Associate Teacher at Warner’s Stone Creek Zen Center. Additionally, Dave counts among his teachers Shunryu Suzuki, Philip Whalen and Jakusho Kwong. He is also a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America.
More information about Joko Dave Haselwood's work can be found at:

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #42 - 22OCT11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Robert Schmidt reads from E.J. Gold's The Creation Story Verbatim.
  • Robert Schmidt reads/discusses his essay, The Miracle of Conscious Co-Creation..
  • Stuart Goodnick reads/discusses his essay Reflections on a Shakuhachi Lesson and performs some Shakuhachi pieces written by his teacher, Masayuki Koga.
  • Stuart Goodnick reads/discusses "The Organic Body of Man" from E.J. Gold's The Seven Bodies of Man.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #41 - 15OCT11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A discussion with Dr. Peter Davis, director of The California Classroom. Dr. Peter Davis has been motivating others to reach their highest achievement since his early twenties. He teaches that humans can awaken their full powers for good and evolve themselves intentionally and consciously. He is founder of the science of Energy Field Psychology. Peter Davis began his career as a group organizer, artist and teacher at the Free University Of Berkeley, in Berkeley, CA. He subsequently studied tai chi chuan and the Chinese Internal System principally with Grandmaster T.R. Chung and Master Xu Guo Ming; as well as with Wang Hao Da, Ye Xiao Long and Qian Zhao Hong, all acknowledged grandmasters. Peter was also deeply inspired by the work of several esoteric traditions including the work and dances of G.I.Gurdjieff, the Vedantic yoga masters, and Tibetan Buddhism. He traveled widely in search of and found authentic repesenations of these, and other great traditions. He has been a devoted practitioner of meditation and kindred thoughts for decades. Dr. Davis is a natural synthesizer of many sciences, philosophies, disciplines and therapeutic methods, from which he distills his own unique teachings.

More information about Dr. Peter Davis' work can be found at:

Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #40 - 08OCT11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick and Robert Schmidt read/discuss excerpts from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's, I Am That.
  • A discussion with Kenny Johnson, founder of This Sacred Space. Kenny spent over twenty years in prison and has been out of prison since 1997. He is a spiritual teacher and consultant to families and to those who have been out of prison and may be going to jail. He also just published his acclaimed book, The Last Hustle, chronicling his years as a criminal and how he was transformed while incarcerated. Kenny has one passion and that is sharing the message that “God’s Grace Is Here Now.” Kenny’s spiritual awareness and other spiritual teachers' insights have been published in the book, The Awakening West, by John Lumiere-Wins and Lynn Marie Lumiere.

More information about Kenny Johnson's work can be found at:

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #39 - 01OCT11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Robert Schmidt reads/discusses readings from Regina Sara Ryan's Praying Dangerously.
  • Robert Schmidt reads/discusses readings from The Lessons of Saint Francis: How to Bring Simplicity and Spirituality into Your Daily Life by John Michael Talbot and Steve Rabey.
  • Robert Schmidt reads/discusses more from Praying Dangerously on G. I. Gurdjieff's perspective on prayer; Stuart Goodnick joins the conversation from his hospital bed via telephone.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #38 - 24SEP11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Robert Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick discuss the distinction between religion and spirituality.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #37 - 17SEP11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick reads his 1998 article, The Death of Robert Daniel Ennis. Robert Ennis was the founder of Tayu Meditation Center and the treatment of his death was inspired by the work of today's guest.
  • A discussion with Jerrigrace Lyons. Jerrigrace Lyons is the Director of Final Passages, a model project offering education for personal and legal rights concerning home or family-directed funerals and final disposition (burial and cremation). She has a long history in alternative health care. Jerrigrace Lyons, a Reiki Master, Certified Trager Practioner, and founder of the project, is a Minister who also directs Home Funeral Ministry. She has been interviewed and reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Mother Earth News, SF Magazine, KRON 4, CNN Headline News to name a few and now featured in a new PBS documentary “A family Undertaking” aired nationally in 2004.

More information about Jerrigrace Lyon's work can be found at:

Saturday, September 10, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #36 - 10SEP11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick reads/discusses his essay "The Practice of Patriotism" originally written after 9/11/2001.
  • Robert Schmidt reads/discusses an interview of Ram Dass by Mariana Caplan from her book, The Guru Question, in which they discuss the relationship with the guru.
  • Robert Schmidt reads/discusses Chapters 1 and 2 of E.J. Gold's The Hidden Work.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #35 - 03SEP11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A discussion with Kevin Griffin. Kevin Griffin is the author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps and A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery. A longtime Buddhist practitioner and 12 Step participant, he is a leader in the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. Kevin teaches internationally in Buddhist centers, treatment centers, professional conferences, and academic settings.

More information about Kevin Griffin's work can be found at:

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #34 - 27AUG11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick reads E.J. Gold's "The Carousel" from Autobiography of a Sufi with musical accompaniment by Daniel Kelly (Part 2).
  • Robert Schmidt reads Lee Lozowick's "Non-Dualism and the Spiritual Path" from Lozowick's book Enlightened Duality.
  • A discussion with Robert Schmidt, Stuart Goodnick, and Daniel Kelly on "Non-Dualism and the Spiritual Path".

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #33 - 20AUG11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Stuart Goodnick reads E.J. Gold's "The Carousel" from Autobiography of a Sufi with musical accompaniment by Daniel Kelly (Part 1).
  • A Discussion with Regina Sara Ryan. Regina Sara Ryan, a professional writer and editor, is a graduate advisor in the fields of Theology and Psychology at Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona. She is the author of numerous books in the fields of spirituality and natural health, including: Igniting the Inner Life; Praying Dangerously; and The Woman Awake. As a wellness consultant, she also co-authored (with John W. Travis, M.D.) the classic Wellness Workbook, a standard of holistic health education since 1980. As a proponent of natural health, Ryan has long been an advocate of breastfeeding as the natural and the healthiest means of feeding our babies. Ryan’s work in spirituality evolves from her more than thirty-year study of contemplation and mysticism. In 1995 she met the South Indian saint, Yogi Ramsuratkumar and spent five weeks at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India. She lives in Paulden, Arizona.

More information about Regina Sara Ryan's work can be found at:

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #32 - 13AUG11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Discussion with Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt
  • Reading and discussion of Lee Lozowick's Conscious Parenting, Chapter 2.
  • Reading and discussion of E.J. Gold's Practical Work on Self, Chapter 2: The Pond (cont'd)

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, August 6, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #31 - 06AUG11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Discussion with Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt
  • Reading and discussion of Lee Lozowick's Conscious Parenting, Chapter 2.
  • Reading and discussion of E.J. Gold's Practical Work on Self, Chapter 1: The Pond

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #30 - 30JUL11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Discussion with Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt
  • Reading and discussion of Lee Lozowick's Conscious Parenting, Chapter 1.
  • Reading and discussion of E.J. Gold's Practical Work on Self, Chapter 1: Awakening the Machine

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, July 23, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #29 - 23JUL11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Further discussion by Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on Gurdjieff's "Doctrine of Multiple 'I's".
  • A discussion with Ruah Bull, Director of Contemplative Programs at the Journey Center. Ruah Bull, Ph.D. is a spiritual director who specializes in working with helping professionals, people on non-traditional spiritual paths, and those who are entering the contemplative journey. She has a private practice in Petaluma, CA, and works in a variety of medical settings. Ruah's passion is to bring people from different traditions and practices together to share and explore God's call to community, conversation and contemplation. Ruah is the co-author of two books on Subtle Aromatherapy: Aromatherapy & Subtle Energy Techniques: Compassionate Healing With Essential Oils and Aromatherapy Anointing Oils: Spiritual Blessings, Ceremonies, and Affirmations. The Journey Center is a safe, welcoming and helpful place for all who are spiritually thirsty, no matter what path they have chosen at this point in their journey. It offers resources (online and local), events, gatherings and opportunities that are both Christ-centered and respectful of all spiritual paths.

More information about Ruah Bull's work can be found at:

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #28 - 16JUL11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Discussion about Beliefs and Multiple 'I's with Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt
  • Reading and discussion of Rob Schmidt's "Against Belief: Beyond the Prison of Fixed Ideas"
  • Reading and discussion of Maurice Nicoll's essay "The Doctrine of Multiple 'I's" from the Commentaries

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #27 - 09JUL11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Discussion on spiritual schools with Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt
  • Reading and discussion of Lee Lozowick's "Words of Fire and Faith."
  • Reading and discussion of Maurice Nicoll's essay "Self Love" from the Commentaries

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, July 2, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #26 - 02JUL11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • The 35th Anniversary of Tayu Meditation Center with Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt
  • Reading of "The Death of Robert Daniel Ennis" by Stuart Goodnick
  • Readings from Robert Ennis' "The Way of Tayu" done by Rob Schmidt

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #25 - 25JUN11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • The Mystical Positivist (Stuart Goodnick) discusses some of the transformational aspects of his recent health crisis.
  • A discussion with Nicholas Egan, Ph.D. Nicholas Egan studies closely with several Lamas from the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and has been a practicing Buddhist for more than 15 years. He has lived in Nepal studying Buddhism and Tibetan language, and continues to lead pilgrimages throughout Asia. Nicholas has recently completed a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

More information about Nick Egan's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #24 - 18JUN11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A discussion with Jim Wilson, poet and Many Rivers co-founder, on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. This year is the 400th Anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. Considered by many to the crown jewel of English literature, it has exerted, and continues to exert a pervasive influence on the English speaking world. There are countless expressions we use every day that come from the KJB: 'the skin of our teeth', 'apple of your eye', 'woe is me', 'render unto Caesar', 'holier than thou', 'nothing new under the sun', 'scapegoat', 'a law unto themselves', 'my brother's keeper', and many others. In a sense we are all still speaking in the manner of the King James Bible. The evening will discuss how the KJB was created, how it has come to exert such a wide influence, and will celebrate its 400 year presence.
  • Jim Wilson is a former Buddhist monk, former prison chaplain, and continues his spiritual quest in the Quaker tradition. He spends much of his free time writing poetry.

More information about Jim Wilson's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #23 - 04JUN11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A broadcast of a public talk by Stuart Goodnick called, "The Mystical Positivist," given at Many Rivers Books and Tea on March 31st, 2011. This talk offers a discussion of this new media project and the paradoxical meaning of the term Mystical Positivism. The Mystical Positivist perspective can be controversial; it presents a challenge to many of the comfortable attitudes in the New Age and contemporary spiritual scene, which often depict an overly romantic picture of spiritual transformation while ignoring the gritty substrate underlying genuine Work on Self. The thesis of Mystical Positivism is that rationality is in no way the antithesis of deep mystical experience; in fact, it is a necessary ally

More information about Many Rivers Books and Tea can be found at:

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Free Will, Neurobiology, and Presentiment - response to a posted comment


Since my recent post occasioned the first comment being posted on The Mystical Positivist blog site since its inception last December, I want to respond to the points it raises. Also, it presented me with a considerable challenge in that I needed to familiarize myself with the arguments pro and con on the use of Bayesian statistics in the analysis of Psi data. 

The commenter posted a link to a paper entitled Why Psychologists Must Change the Way They Analyze Their Data: The Case of Psi. The authors, who are well known in their development of Bayesian statistical analysis, apply their techniques to a paper published in 2011 by Dr. D.J. Bem called Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. This is a fairly controversial paper in which Bem reports on nine experiments that he conducted in "retro-causation" that show findings not unlike the paper I cited in my original post by Dr. Dean Radin. Bem used a frequentist analysis to claim that eight of his nine experiments showed strong evidence (as measured by p< 0.05) of the validity of his alternative hypothesis (i.e. the affirmation that a retro-causal effect was present and the rejection of the null hypothesis which says that there is not effect). In the paper my commenter cites, Wagenmakers et al. claim that by using a Bayesian approach which takes into account assumptions about the prior probabilities of both the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis, they can reanalyze the data and show that Bem's claims of significance are wildly overstated.

It turns out that Bem and two co-authors (who have previously authored a number of Bayesian analyses of Psi data) published a response to Wagenmakers et al. called Must Psychologists Change the Way They Analyze Their Data? A Response to Wagenmakers, Wetzels, Borsboom, & Van der Maas (2011). They argue that Wagenmakers et al. used the subjectivity inherent in the selection of the Bayesian distribution of the prior probability for the alternative hypothesis to inappropriately bias their analysis toward the null hypothesis. In very simple terms (but terms that do not really do justice to the subtlety of the argument here), they state that Wagenmakers et al. are demanding such a large effect size from the prior probability distribution of the alternative hypothesis that their resulting analysis of Bem's data drives the Bayes factors (the ratio of the marginal probability for the null hypothesis given the data to the marginal probability of the alternative hypothesis given the data) to relative insignificance (technically they use a diffuse Cauchy prior distribution). Bem et al. utilize a different probability distribution for the alternative hypothesis based on prior knowledge of similar psychological studies of priming effects on reaction time, and they demonstrate that a Bayesian analysis of Bem's original data yields strong affirmative results for the alternative hypothesis in five of the nine experiments. They go on to do a Bayesian meta-analysis of the aggregate dataset and show a Bayes factor of 13.6K (extremely strong confirmation of the alternative hypothesis).

Lest we leave it there, Wagenmakers et al. offer a response to the response here. In looking into this question, I found a useful background paper on the subject by authors with no particular philosophic axe to grind that explains the issues behind conducting a Bayesian t-test. So based on all of this material, I have drawn a number of conclusions - some of which are actually different from where I started from:
  • The most important lesson here is that the ordinary criterion for statistical significance (p<.05) in a frequentist analysis is way too generous and does not give sufficient weight to the null hypothesis. Stated differently, I will no longer lazily think that a p<0.05 result in a Psi test is necessarily significant. I will however continue to think that a p<0.001 is significant (such as in Radin's paper). Fortunately for my previously held opinions, there are plenty of solid studies out there that show results of this magnitude.
  • The critiques in Wagenmakers et al. against exploratory versus confirmatory testing of data are excellent points and important ones to watch for in the Psi debate. Effectively they say that if you use a data set to identify potential hypotheses and then run a statistical analysis testing for those hypotheses against the same data set, then you will be biasing your results away from the null hypothesis. Unfortunately, they miss the point that four or five of the nine Bem experiments in the original paper were strictly replications and not exploratory in nature. And as far as the paper I cited in my original blog post, Radin reports on an initial study and three strict replication studies that do not attempt to extract new hypothesis out of the data.
  • To cite Wagenmakers et al. as an indictment of all data analysis in the field of Psi research and to use that conclusion as a justification of not examining more rigorously the large body of published data on the subject smacks of confirmation bias. The appropriate application of Bayesian statistics to hypothesis testing is far from settled even outside of the field of Psi. The virtue of the Bayesian approach is that it forces one to be explicit about the subjective choices one makes in determining the prior probabilities to use in an analysis. Reasonable people can disagree on this and that disagreement can make the difference between a significant and not so significant result, but at least one's biases are out in the open. The more common frequentist approach has a built in bias against the null hypothesis that is not so obvious. In just this, Wagenmakers et al.'s larger critique of how statistical analysis is used in psychology and social sciences is a valid and strong one.
To put a bow on this particular discussion, I found a video on Dean Radin's blog of a recent debate at Harvard that featured Daryl Bem, Jonathan Schooler, and Sam Moulton. Bem is the author of the retro-causation survey discussed in Wagenmakers et al. Jonathan Schooler is the researcher featured in the articles recently in the New Yorker on the Decline Effect. Sam Mouton is a Harvard Psychologist who started out as a parapsychologist but later rejected the field when he consistently got null results in a number of studies he conducted. Bem claims to have started out as a skeptic but was led by his results over a number of studies to believe there was something there in his tests. It is a good discussion that raises some of the challenges in this kind of research. Schooler comes out in this discussion as a Psi researcher and discusses the impact of the Decline Effect on replication studies in Psi (and other fields). 

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Free Will, Neurobiology, and Presentiment - a Defense of the Soul

Yesterday we had an interesting discussion on the Mystical Positivist radio show with Dr. David Weisman, a neurologist and author who has written about how current findings in neurobiology falsify the idea of a unified soul governing the human organism (podcast here). Likewise I have discussed this issue in the context of Sam Harris' book, The Moral Landscape - How Science Can Determine Human Values in an early entry on this blog site (post here). The basic idea is that fMRI studies definitely show that activity in the brain's motor regions can be detected as much as 350 milliseconds to 10 seconds before the conscious decision to move has entered a test subject's field of awareness. The general conclusion that neuobiologists such as Harris or our guest, neurologist Dr. Weisman, tend to draw is that these results demonstrate that however much we think we are the authors of our own actions, physical processes below our level of awareness are determining how our physical system manifests. The inescapable conclusion is that what we subjectively experience as our "self" is in reality a fiction conjured up post hoc by the brain to maintain the illusion of an independent being having agency over the functioning of the body.

As I have written in the past, it is hard to escape this conclusion regardless of your spiritual persuasion if one is being intellectually honest. But I made a connection this morning that I had not quite registered before that provides an interesting and challenging response to this neurobiological argument against free will. It involves the fairly large and independently reproduced data sets of what consciousness researcher, Dean Radin, calls "presentiment."

Presentiment refers to measurable physiological behavior that anticipates a future stimulus regardless of a subject's conscious awareness of the physiological shift. Radin uses this term to distinguish presentiment from precognition which refers to a subject's conscious awareness of a future physical event. From 1997 through 2000, Radin conducted a rigorously designed experimental test of presentiment with three follow-on replications, all of which demonstrate to a large level of statistical significance (p=.001) that the body's nervous system can accurately anticipate a randomly generated future stimulus several seconds before the stimulus is presented in time (full PDF paper here).

The basic idea of Radin's presentiment studies is as follows. Electrodermal activity (EDA) of test subjects is measured before and after the subjects are presented with an image that depicts either a calm image (e.g. nature scenes) or an emotionally charged image (e.g. violence, accidents), and the EDA data are analyzed for differential effects between the image sets. In the experiments, test a subject sits two feet in front of a computer monitor that displays a blank screen. The subject then presses a button and 5 seconds later a random number generator selects an image to display from a repository of several hundred images classified across a spectrum of calm to highly emotionally charged. The random image is presented for 3 seconds and then the screen goes blank again for 10 seconds.

Depending on the experiment, subjects would engage in 30 to 40 replications of pressing the button to gather data for a single session. In these individual sessions, the system was designed not to show the same image twice to eliminate effects due to recognition or expectation. The EDA data measured in these specific experiments were skin conductance level (SCL). A continuous physiological record would be taken in each test extending from the point the subject presses a button, through the 5 seconds before the system randomly selects an image, through the 3 seconds during which the image is displayed, to the 10 seconds after the  image has been replaced by a blank screen. These data were then analyzed to test whether a statistically significant differential response could be observed between the SCL prior to the presentation of the image for calm images versus emotionally charged images. Typical results appear as follows:


In the graph above, -5 seconds is the point at which the subject presses the button to initiate the test, and 0 seconds is the point at which a random number generator determines which image (from a set of calm or emotional images) is presented to the subject. After the image is presented for 3 seconds, we see a strongly differential change in SCL when the subject sees an emotional versus a calm image. That is expected. But the radical thing in these data is that there is a statistically significant differential effect between the calm and emotional images 5 seconds prior to the random selection of the image yet to be viewed. This bears repeating: the SCL measurements were different 5 seconds before a randomly selected image was presented only when in fact it turned out that the image was emotionally charged. The subject's body was accurately responding in advance to a future stimulus all at a level below that of the subject's conscious awareness.

If you are sufficiently startled by these results, I encourage you to read Radin's paper in full. He details how his experimental setup anticipates the possible objections to the methodology, he cites an independent review by skeptics of his protocol, and he cites independently conducted experiments that replicate his findings. I am personally convinced of the integrity of the results and the researcher here to move on to the question of what these results might say about my earlier discussion on neurobiology and the brain.

These presentiment results change the character of the argument about free will and the brain considerably. The results cited by Harris show, for instance, that 350 milliseconds prior to a conscious willing to action of a physical movement, the motor centers in the brain are activating and preparing for the movement. The results cited by Radin show that as much as 5 seconds prior to presentation of a randomly selected stimulus, a subject's autonomic activity is responding differentially according to the character of the yet to be presented stimulus. Taking these results together, it is not a far stretch to suggest that the moment of the arising in my field of awareness of my conscious intention to move my arm might function similarly to the random presentation of an image in Radin's presentiment experiments. The fact that we can measure activation of my brain's motor center seconds before my intention to move my arm registers in my field of awareness can be understood as an example of presentiment. Yes my nervous system is responding in advance of my intention to move my arm, but this does not necessarily mean that my conscious experience of intentionality is a fiction. The results of Radin's presentiment experiments support as plausible the interpretation that a "soul's" coupling to the body's nervous system models like the random presentation of emotionally charged images to a test subject. However counter-intuitive to our notions of causality, the nervous and autonomic systems of the body seem to demonstrate the ability to couple across time and anticipate as yet undetermined stimuli. Conscious intentionality can be modeled as one such future stimulus.

Lest I be accused of overreaching here, I am not claiming that Radin's presentiment results prove the existence of a unified soul. But I am claiming that Radin's data negate the argument described above that the results from neurobiology necessarily falsify the idea that we have free will of some sort. The retrocausal anticipation in our nervous systems to a yet to be determined future event (e.g. the formation in consciousness of an intention to move) can be seen as a more general and strange property of our nervous systems. It does not prove that what we construe as our conscious intention is a fiction asserted post hoc by the brain system.

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #22 - 14MAY11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A discussion with David Weisman M.D. Dr. David Weisman is a neurologist in PA, and author of "Buddhism and the Brain" and "From Divided Minds, A Specious Soul" in Seed Magazine. He discusses data that demonstrate that although humans have a strong idea their minds have unity and self control, neurology and neuroscience indicate that reality is nothing like that.

More information about Dr. David Weisman's work can be found at:

Monday, May 9, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #21 - 07MAY11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.
This week's podcast features:
  • Discussion of Landmark Forum (a descendant of EST)
  • Work of the Week: Separating out the events of one's life from the interpretations
  • A discussion with Mirka Knaster, Ph.D. Mirka Knaster is the author of Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra, a book about the Bengali meditation master who was a grandfather of the vipassana/​mindfulness movement in the West and who taught many of today's most prominent Western dharma teachers. She interviewed nearly 200 people around the world for their down-to-earth yet inspiring poignant and humorous remembrances of someone who embodied the qualities of awakening and who believed it was possible for all of us to cultivate them. The book also draws on discussions with Munindra before his death in 2003, early talks Munindra gave in the U.S., and includes rare photographs. Shambhala is the publisher (October 2010). Mirka collaborated with Robert Pryor on this project.
More information about Mirka Knaster's work and interests can be found at:

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #20 - 30APR11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.
This week's podcast features:
  • The Creation of music through the instrument of the body
  • Work of the Week: The Tayu New Day Exercise
  • A discussion with Jisho Warner Roshi. Jisho Warner Roshi, head of Stone Creek Zen Center of Sebastopol, is a Buddhist priest and Zen teacher in the Soto Zen School. Warner Roshi trained in the United States under Tozen Akiyama and Dainin Katagiri Roshis, and in Japan under Shundo Aoyama Roshi. She received authorization to teach and dharma transmission from Tozen Akiyama Roshi.
More information about Jisho Warner Roshi's work and interests can be found at:

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #19 - 23APR11

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • The Archaeology of the Self
  • Work of the Week: The statistical testing of personal mood
  • A discussion with Jean Millay, Ph.D. Jean Millay, Ph.D., taught parapsychology for eight years, served as president of the Parapsychology Research Group, and was an editor/contributor to Silver Threads: Twenty-five Years of Parapsychology Research. Her book, Multidimensional Mind: Remote Viewing in Hyperspace, focuses on her 30 years of research into psi phenomena, hypnosis, trance states, channeling, shamanism, and the EEG effects of entrainment with lights, sound, and chemistry. She and Dr. Tim Scully created the Brain-wave Biofeedback Light Sculpture-the impetus for her research on the effects of brainwave synchronization. Her movie, The Psychedelic Experience, won a film festival prize in 1965. Most recently she is the editor of Radiant Minds - Scientists Explore the Dimensions of Consciousness.
More information about Jean Millay's work and interests can be found at: