The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #446 - 07NOV26

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This week on the show we feature a talk given by Stuart Goodnick at Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol, CA, on October 1st, titled, Entering a World of Awe and Spontaneity: Notes from a Journeyman Diviner, as well as some introductory comments from Rob Schmidt and Stuart.

The modern world in which we live is one of transactions. We do to get. We play out scripts that have been served up to us from the society in which we are enmeshed. Our lives have become mediated by screens which display a world of objects that we struggle to negotiate. The result leaves us feeling an undercurrent of emptiness and a vague sense that meaning is missing from our lives. Indigenous ways of living teach us that the world is alive and filled with spirit. Such traditions demonstrate a relational way of being in which all beings, be they human, animal, plant, or mineral are alive and in ongoing conversation with us. All we need to do is to learn to listen.

Stuart's apprenticeship in Dagara Stick and Voice Divination with his mentor, Theresa Dintino, began in March of 2021. Though he and Rob had participated in a number of personal divinations in years prior and had a number of significant outcomes from those sessions, it was just after his 60th birthday when he was "claimed" by the Wedemé to begin the journey of becoming a Diviner.

In the ensuing five years, he built shrines, performed rituals, studied the Dagara cosmology with his mentor, received guidance through multiple divinations, worked closely in group activities with many of the Diviners of the Strega Tree Collective, and opened himself to be a willing partner in the work of the Wedemé and Kontomblé in healing the Earth and the beings who dwell upon her. In April of 2026, he was formally initiated as a Diviner in this tradition.

Every Diviner represents a unique warp and weft of capacities, personal histories, interests, and talents through which the Wedemé and Kontomblé weave the tapestry of a divination on behalf of the client. In Stuart's case, he has been a student of Tayu Meditation for over 40 years and a Tayu Meditation teacher for over 33 years. The Tayu tradition, founded by Robert Daniel Ennis in 1976 and grounded in the Fourth Way tradition of G.I. Gurdjieff emphasizes conversation, be it within ourselves, with others, and between spiritual traditions. Its foundational practices are Self-Observation and Self-Remembering. A Dagara-style divination is itself a transformative conversation, and whatever skills he may have accrued in his work with Tayu are put to good use by the Wedemé and Kontomblé in the course of a Stick or a Voice Divination.

The power and the beauty of the Dagara forms of divination lie in their invitation to pull our attention away from our thoughts stirred up by the constant barrage of modern media and to redirect it to the Earth. We find true healing when we learn to engage with that which created us and to reconnect with the abundant spirits of the Wild with whom we have lost touch through our modern ways of being. The rituals and offerings that arise out of divination enlist the forces of the Natural World to assist each of us in reconnecting to our true vital selves.

Join us for a discussion about how indigenous practices such as Dagara Stick Divination and the cosmologies from which they emerge, provide a gateway through which we can enter and productively engage with a world of beauty, awe and spontaneity and, in so doing, leave a life of transaction and emptiness behind.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center and Stuart Goodnick's divination work can be found at:

Stuart's Divination Page on the Strega Tree Website: stregatree.com,

Styles of Divination from the Strega Tree Website: Styles of Divination,

Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: The Crisis of Continuity of Wisdom,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: The Practice of Patriotism,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: Cultivating Transparency and Languaging Nonduality,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: Fourth Way Magic,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: Interview by Richard Whittaker.

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #445 - 29AUG26

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This week on The Mystical Positivist, we feature a discussion from the Western Baul Podcast Series featuring Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick. The title is "Conversation as Spiritual Practice: The Legacy of Robert Daniel Ennis"

July 4, 2026 marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of Tayu Meditation Center by Robert Daniel Ennis. Mr. Ennis dated the 200th birthday of American independence in 1976 as the transition moment when he left the context of the spiritual school where he had trained, to establish himself as an independent teacher, and began to explore what spiritual independence meant for himself and others.

Interestingly, and perhaps at first ironically, Mr. Ennis found his work focusing upon the reciprocal mutuality of co-creation in relationship, which he summarized concisely with the mantram “I am that I am; Thou art that I am.” Following Gurdjieff’s assertion of the critical importance of “impression food,” Mr. Ennis created a progressively elaborated, innovative series of two-person meditative practices entitled Co-Meditation.

Co-Meditation is a special form of the Gurdjieffian practice of Self Observation, which consists of holding a neutral witnessing presence with whatever experience unfolds in a given moment. Precisely due to this necessary feature of witness neutrality, Co-Meditation offers rigorous ways to investigate and explore the unseen, long-forgotten, and typically misunderstood implications of what come to be our habits of expression and action in relationship. These habits frequently derive from impression food in infancy and early childhood, when we are most vulnerable and least equipped to receive messages from other people internally without identification. With repetition over time, such deep-seated habits of responding to early impression food persist for decades, resulting in habits of relationship which we ultimately take for granted as “natural” from the perspective of the individual.

Spiritual independence relies upon and is synonymous with the intentional development of a robust and reliable habit of self-examination (as opposed to self-analysis). Co-Meditation offers a powerful practice in just that arena of human experience – relationships – where most people have the greatest difficulty establishing internal neutrality.

Gravely ill weeks before his death, Mr. Ennis remarked to his students that he intended to focus his teaching energies on conversations around meals. On the aforementioned 50th anniversary of Tayu, his gathered students co-created and witnessed the clarifying atmosphere that was their tribute to Tayu’s founder.

The Western Baul Podcast Series features talks by practitioners of the Western Baul path. Western Bauls, as named by Lee Lozowick (1943-2010), an American spiritual Master who taught in the US, Europe, and India and who was known for his radical dharma, humor, and integrity, are kin to the Bauls of Bengal, India, with whom he shared an essential resonance and friendship. Lee’s spiritual lineage includes Yogi Ramsuratkumar and Swami Papa Ramdas.

More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Many Rivers Books and Tea Website: www.manyriversbooks.com,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: The Crisis of Continuity of Wisdom,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: The Practice of Patriotism,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: Cultivating Transparency and Languaging Nonduality,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: Fourth Way Magic,

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick on The Mystical Positivist: Interview by Richard Whittaker.

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #444 - 22AUG26

Podcast:

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Kenneth Hillsman, a diviner in the Dagara West African tradition. Kenneth was born and raised in Tennessee as a preacher’s kid in a very religious family. In college while taking African studies classes, he read Elder Malidoma Somé’s first book, Of Water and Spirit, which planted the seeds for what was to come. While working in the family business, a health and natural foods store, he developed a passion for herbs and roots and how they can heal people. In 2018, Kenneth was initiated into the Dagara tradition of Stick Divination, and after developing a deeper relationship with the ancestors, he began to be shown how herbs and roots can not only heal and help people physically but spiritually as well. As he learned more about past family members it became clear that practicing root medicine always ran in his blood. Now Kenneth uses his divination and root medicine tools to help others along their own spiritual journeys, and he looks forward to one day making the trip to Dagara land in Dano, Burkina Faso, to pay homage to the tribe that helped awaken the medicine that was deep in his bones.

More information about Kenneth Hillsman's work can be found at:

 
Intuitive Medicines on Facebook: www.facebook.com,
Intuitive Medicines on Instagram: www.instagram.com,
Kenneth Hillsman's email: kenneth.hillsman @ gmail.com.

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #443 - 11JUL26

Podcast:

This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod, Buddhist teacher and author the recently released book, The Magic of Vajrayana. In today’s conversation, we discuss the challenges of spiritual practice in the modern world. Among the topics we cover are the contrasting roles of religious and spiritual practice, the crisis of meaning in contemporary life, understanding Mahayana’s “Two Truths” as the Fact of Mystery and the Fact of Life, and Faith versus Belief.

One of the more innovative Buddhist teachers today, Ken McLeod is known for his clear explanations, poetic translations, and pragmatic approach to practice. He is one of the first generation of Western teachers in the Tibetan tradition and one of the few to be authorized to transmit the full scope of these teachings to students. In particular, his approach resonates strongly with those whose path lies outside established institutions.

After graduating with a degree in mathematics, Ken cycled across Europe to Istanbul and then continued his journey overland to India. In 1970 he met his principal teacher Kalu Rinpoche at his monastery near Darjeeling. There Ken began a study and practice in Tibetan Buddhism that lasted more than twenty years. He completed the traditional three-year retreat program two times, translated for many teachers, and helped set up Buddhist centers in Canada and the United States. After his teacher's passing, Ken moved away from the hierarchical structures of Asian Buddhism to explore new approaches.

In 1990, he founded Unfettered Mind in Los Angeles. His approach of one-on-one consultations roiled the Buddhist world in the early '90s, but was quickly recognized as a viable way to teach and guide students in the West. He made individual interviews a central feature of the many retreats he taught in California, New Mexico, and British Columbia. Through numerous small groups in Southern California, he developed the materials that became the encyclopedic meditation manual, Wake Up to Your Life.

Now retired from formal teaching, he lives in Northern California where he hikes and writes. His writings and translations include The Great Path of Awakening (1987), Wake Up to Your Life (2001), An Arrow to the Heart (2007), Reflections on Silver River (2014), A Trackless Path (2017), and The Magic of Vajrayana (2022), as well as a corpus of articles and translations in Tricycle and other Buddhist magazines.

More information about Ken McLeod's work can be found at:

 
Unfettered Mind website: www.unfetteredmind.org.

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #442 - 18APR26

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This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with author, Peter Russell, about his latest book, How to Meditate Without Even Trying (An Eckhart Tolle Edition), just released from New World Library. The refreshingly simple approach that Peter unfolds in his book replaces effort with ease and reminds readers that true peace of mind is closer than they might imagine. His techniques include the practice of allowing – releasing effort, relaxing the mind, and gently returning to the present moment – to make meditation more enjoyable and effective. In this extended conversation we go deep with Peter to foundations of his approach and how the methods he describes can enrich a variety of spiritual practices.

Peter Russell is the author of eleven other books including, Letting Go of Nothing and From Science to God. A teacher of meditation for more than fifty years, he believes the critical challenge today is freeing human thinking from the limited beliefs and attitudes that lie behind many of our problems – personal, social, and global. He has inspired thousands through his talks, teachings, retreats, and popular online courses.

More information about Peter Russell's work can be found at:

Peter Russell's Website: www.peterrussell.com, 

How to Meditate Without Even Trying page: newworldlibrary.com, 

Online course on Meditation: How to Meditate - Without Even Trying, 

Peter Russell on The Mystical Positivist MP388-04SEP21, 

Peter Russell on The Mystical Positivist MP189-27JUN15.