096 - Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery

Portals of Perception

Portals of Perception Website

46:53

Ep. 47 – Ticketing Chaos Explained: Bots, Brokers & Bold Claims with Joel Schwartz What do Donald Trump, Kid Rock, and a 200% ticket guarantee have in common? They’re all part of the chaotic, misunderstood world of live event ticketing—and veteran ticket broker, founding member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB) and attorney, Joel Schwartz is here to discuss the current executive order and how it affects ticket brokers and fans. In this high-impact episode, we sit down with one of the original voices in ticket resale to break down what’s really driving the headlines. From political theater to pricing transparency, Schwartz shares insider stories from decades in the game—starting with Lions games in the '70s and stretching all the way to Super Bowl holdbacks, Taylor Swift meltdowns, and FTC policy shifts. In this episode, you'll learn: Why bots aren’t the real problem—and who actually is How “dynamic pricing” impact fans, travel planners, and the entire resale market What the new executive orders and pricing laws could mean for concerts, sports, and festivals How fans, brokers, and platforms can navigate an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace Whether you're a travel professional, ticketing insider, or just a fan tired of hidden fees and vanishing inventory, this episode delivers clarity, context, and a dose of hard truth. Follow us at @Tix2TravelPod on all platforms and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. www.tttpod.com www.xpotravel.com…

about a year ago 1:04:47

MP3•Episode home

How many of us remember having what some people call a “chrysalis” moment? An octave leap, with mind-opening perceptions, in real time. A powerful flow of energy, a quickening, triggered by a connection or breakthrough that can happen anywhere, at any time, and transform us and the circumstance we’re in.

The chrysalis we probably know as the middle stage of the three-step transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. It’s a beautiful example of growth and change that happens in stages, or gradations, and is often generally described as a change in octaves, or levels. An octave change can be a long journey of refinement, or it can feel like a quantum leap, in an instant.

Why an octave in the first place? What is the benefit of an ordered transition or progression from one state to another? For example, from the physical and dense to the energetic and spiritual? The universe likes octaves; it’s the engineering that facilitates change and innovation; a natural technology that enables the safe entry and movement through successively higher energetic states.

How does it work? Can we really “leap” from a lower octave to a higher one? We turn for insights to Aviv Shahar and collaborator David Price Francis. Their conversation is the latest in the “Current Openings” series.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There can't be an octave leap without new energy coming in from somewhere. So even when we see water boiling, there has to be the application of heat from somewhere to cause the molecules to get excited, and then it changes state. So when I think of now a quantum leap, or a change of octave, there's going to be a new energy incoming, a quickening as you say, a new energy incoming from somewhere to cause that to happen.” (David)

“Teaching number one in there, which is we have to do whatever it is we're doing in the fullest possible way because, in actuality, the release of the portal from one octave to the next, that threshold, is reached for by the full realization of the octave we are in. And teaching number two you offered, there has to be resistance built in. If you actually try to bypass or skip the steps without growing by resistance, you may visit a higher octave, but you will not have the infrastructure to hold it in a sustainable way.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Aviv’s LinkedIn

Aviv’s Twitter

Aviv’s Website

Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery

108 episodes

#Society #Religion #Podcasting Education #Self-Improvement #Philosophy #Peter Barry #Aviv Shahar #Community Of Conversation And Discovery #Evolution And The Future #Humans Of Purpose #Personal Development

096 - Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery

Portals of Perception

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

TWEETABLE QUOTES

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals of Perception Website

Aviv’s LinkedIn

Aviv’s Twitter

Aviv’s Website

Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery

108 episodes

All episodes

1
107 - Expressions of Religious Living 1:13:30

9 hours ago1:13:30

1:13:30

What does it mean to live religiously? How do the premises and ways of living religiously evolve to embrace and embody new evolutionary possibility? How do people register and express perhaps the most intimate feelings a human can experience — the sensing of real connection with universal and divine sources of life? Portals brought together an international group of friends to hear firsthand how their experience and embodiment of the impulse to live religiously may be evolving. Many moving and profound insights emerge in their conversation with Aviv Shahar , including: The religious impulse is a deep longing inside that seeks the highest point of communion we can find; it emanates not from religion, but from a spiritual presence that lives inside the temple of ourselves. We no longer need to build cathedrals of stone but seek the cathedral within. Every person is different; instead of structured religion, we come together in a shared sentiment as individuals with their own power and self-responsibility that allows freedom to do whatever we need to do. We are both human, both man and woman are created in the image of God, which says God has a female side. Whatever comes into the future of religion, it must start from that reality. We have these visions of how to lead a religious life: convent, ashram, mountain top. We're now talking about coming back inside us, the journey to where we are in our life. We bring with us our religious traditions, the ceremonies and rituals, because they are touchstones to connect us with what we're doing and why, and what gives us meaning. Religion can appear through a human being who has value for the planet; there's more intelligence and wisdom that the Great Mother, the great church, offers in abundance. A vital role in religious practices is to learn, educate, facilitate and allow the human to be moved and fashioned by dormant systems that will provide needed new intelligence. We’re looking for the religion of what works; being prodded to search for something else, something better, is maybe how we make ourselves fit for the different needs of the times we live in. I want to be part of a religion that can go anywhere from your heart; when the world can’t offer stability or love, the universe can; the stars have never failed to make me feel part of something reliable. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “It's not the religion that is important, it is the religious impulse that gives rise to something very fundamental in human life. And the story that we are seeking is the story of the drama of the relationship between the Source and human beings. And it seems to me that the religious impulse, which is a deep place in humans of longing, and belonging, and being part of, is based upon the fact that we are not complete, and therefore we seek completion with something which is outside of ourselves - which keeps us searching and looking for communion.”(Avshalom) “A human lifespan is pretty short, so I've always had this feeling that I was born into something that's ongoing before me, and it's ongoing beyond me. So, what have I been born into? And can I become a part of what that is? And perhaps, as a next step, can I contribute to whatever that ongoing process is? So, to me, that's the beginning of a religious journey. I think so much of what we're talking about is that it's coming back inside us, where we are in our life, bringing us in closer contact with this whole universe that we're a part of.” (Peter) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Expressions of Religious Living…

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106 - Religion and the Esoteric 1:32:42

14 days ago1:32:42

1:32:42

Is it possible to appreciate the life of Jesus Christ in a real way that embraces the universal message and mystery, but also finds harmony with a fundamental approach to logic and reason? Can an esoteric perception of the divine find a home inside metamodern spirituality? We continue exploring an evolving perception of God and the many faces of Jesus Christ, the central pillar of Christianity, in the newest conversation with Aviv Shahar and Brendan Graham Dempsey . Brendan is a metamodern leader who combines a personal experience with Christianity and a pioneering exploration of metamodern thinking and philosophy. In a lively exchange, Brendan and Aviv explore different appreciations of the transformative power that spiritual seekers feel in the many facets of Jesus Christ. Could the religious influence that changed the course of human history have naturally emerged as part of a complex, evolving human species? Or can the esoteric pursuit of a deeper truth reveal the divine nature of Christ’s appearance? Many enlivening insights emerge, including: The best defense of spirituality is rigorous, critical thinking; integrating nuanced, sophisticated perspectives with an openness to deep esoteric experiences. Some religious traditions can be seen as privileging the irrational: just have faith, and quote a lot of scripture when people ask uncomfortable questions. When you come back from a peak experience, it’s essential to engage in what we describe as a rational or debrief process to help separate the real from the unreal. Experience is a valid source of evidence; we can look to it without necessarily bringing down the skeptical, critical, prefrontal-cortex analysis and do science on it. We talk about the soul not as another dogma or form of teaching, but as a guidance to discover a path in ourselves where we can travel to the edge of what we know. There is a moment where you feel you can emerge to a unique combination that is not just the thrill of your mind quivering with new ideas, but is more than the biochemistry of your brain. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I think we can reclaim languages of 'soul' and 'spirit' to refer very much to what they kind of used to refer to, but now be more clear about kind of what those things really are, in a sense, and it isn't to say that we fully understand them, either. Because there is this realm of the unknown and the mystery that we should lean into, and again, a lot of that is about the sacred for me. The more we learn, and the more that gets disclosed from that mystery and continues to fill in that causal account of reality is precisely the learning process that connects us deeper to the world, and, I would say, the divine.” (Brendan) “Believe me, I would love nothing more than to really deeply feel in my heart that I am an eternal being that reincarnated here out of a long journey of continuous cycles of birth and rebirth as I develop, and that I am engaged in a kind of multi-lifelong process of learning, spiritual development and growth, so that I can ultimately be more united with the divine on the other side of this existence. And that this whole cosmic situation that we're a part of is part of a divine design and plan that's basically leading in that direction.” (Brendan) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Religion and the Esoteric…

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105 - The Open-Heart Conversation: Current Openings #18 47:32

28 days ago47:32

47:32

What is the message we would bring back to our families and friends if we survived a near-death experience? It’s the kind of event that could change our lives in a big way. What would we most want the people closest to us to realize from our close encounter with the veil? Such close encounters reveal profound insights and perceptions that can change a life’s direction, or bring new understanding about the human’s larger universal purpose and potential. Being brought back “online” from an unexpected near-departure also highlights a view of human life as the integration of many different systems in a unified, harmonious whole — physical, mental, and spiritual. An illness or other struggle can be seen as a form of dis-integration, while weaving to reintegrate the parts back together, physical and energetic, enables a larger healing. It brings a clearer vision of the river of life flowing seamlessly within a stream of universal possibility. Longtime Portals friend David Price Francis recently survived a very close call: a scheduled heart surgery did not go as planned. In the latest chapter of the Current Openings series, he talks with Aviv Shahar about the perceptions and meaning the experience unlocked, and the message he’d like us to contemplate. Among their insights: That's how I think of human beings: we're not finished, we're not completed. We're here to learn, to grow, to develop. We're in an embryonic state, which is why planet Earth is so messy. Make the most of life while we're here; pay attention, try to understand how the universe works. Partly why we're here is to read God's signature in the world around us. We can’t have the evolutionary stream without being in the river of life; we need to love both. Not trying to be in the realm of consciousness and leaving behind regular life. Instructing and talking to our soul is part of wellbeing and healing. We talk with our intention, our consciousness; we speak to our brain, our body, our soul about what’s happening in our life. We might see life in the universe and on Earth as random. Yet the distance from the sun to Earth is exact. In life there is often an exactness to a fraction of a degree. What does this mean for how we live? This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “We don't want to go to Nirvana, we want Nirvana to come to us - whilst we're doing the washing up - like that idea of chop wood, carry water, that one is actually engaged in the river of life, but one has, at the same time, a higher consciousness and a higher awareness that's active. So both things are happening at once. It's very easy though to get carried along in the river of life and lose consciousness within it; we become automated, we become auto responsive.” (David) “Pay attention to the river of life, the codings, the understandings, you could say the signature of creation, it's all there. And so we don't take our consciousness and seek to separate it and go into some other domain and become blank. It's actually more like, everything is interesting, everything is worth looking at and exploring and trying to understand it. What are the actual laws by which this place works? And what are the connections through which it works? And we've been given this chance to research God through the river of life, because that tells us something about the design of creation.” (David) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website The Open-Heart Conversation: Current Openings #18…

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104 - The Goddess Arising 1:17:29

6 weeks ago1:17:29

1:17:29

What would the divine feminine or Goddess nature want to ask or expect of a man today? If you were a man representing the divine masculine, and had the chance, what would you want to ask or say to a woman at this moment? Can we even imagine ourselves and each other as different expressions of a divine source, more than merely a personality? These were among the inquiries that helped inspire a profound exploration of the divine feminine and the Goddess archetype at this Fall’s Metamodern Spirituality Lab. To learn more, Portals brought together Aviv Shahar and Lab organizers and metamodern leaders Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey, along with participants Mariah Rose McKay and Antonia Louise. This is the newest conversation in the Portals series exploring metamodern spirituality. A central theme for this special collaboration of women and men was exploring the role of the Goddess, the feminine, in metamodern spirituality: an embrace, rather than historical denial, of the feminine presence at the heart of the human’s universal nature. The Lab itself was a space where gatherings and rituals supported a freer expression of the divine feminine and masculine influences in both women and men. The openness allowed for the emergence of many facets of the Goddess nature: maternal, warrior, healing, wisdom. For many participants it produced a trust and chance for intimacy that in turn generated a deep sense of healing and release of ancient tensions between the genders. Other Lab insights include: It’s the importance of community; we cannot do this alone. It’s the practical elements, but also the deep and intimate bonds we form, and the healing power of deep relationships. There is the long-wave dimension and nature of this work: we need to include the generational transmission; a project of the next 100 years. When the god and goddess are prepared to embrace each other, inside each of us, a birthing process occurs; those two configurations merge into a third nature that liberates a new future. We don't know the ripple effects of how our hearts and consciousness can affect the world when we change our relationship to the goddess. This quality of intimacy and way of being with each other, where people are held in a place where they can begin a sentence without knowing how they will end it, takes time to build. We honor the broad spectrum of ways women show up from a “masculine” stance, and men from a “feminine” stance; these are potent and helpful ways of looking at the world and ourselves. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “From the point of view of people who are interested in growth and development and depth and a transformation of civilization, a goddess who's also capable of growth and change and depth, and who could enter into more nuanced or richer relations with human beings, and in the masculine/feminine exchange, is something we would like to be able to facilitate through our thinking, and speaking, and hearts, and relationships.” (Layman) “This is a favorite topic of mine, polarity in masculine and feminine dynamics, and there is something really valuable about having these distinctions and having a spectrum between those poles, but being able to create a magnetism, being able to create something that pulls together and also something that repels, not necessarily in a bad way, just in a separation, individuation way. We are separate, and we can be as one. I feel like there is a lot of healing that we are doing collectively; how do we embody those in the most healthy and conscious way?” (Antonia) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website The Goddess Arising…

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103 - The Two Struggles - The Universalis Project #11 41:15

8 weeks ago41:15

41:15

As we find our way each day through the often intense and personal struggles facing us and humanity, imagine that we can build our strength and resilience by exercising the right muscles; not just physical, but our emotional, mental and spiritual “muscles.” In the newest chapter of the Homo Universalis series, Aviv Shahar , with Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou , explores how the “muscles” metaphor is not such a stretch as we face and learn to embrace the two big struggles in any developing life: the known and the unknown. The known struggles are those we see and feel all around us, from personal, to family or community, to the global cultural, economic and ecological upheavals that affect the planet and each of us individually. Our struggle with the unknown includes trying to imagine and create a new future when so much of the present is uncertain and changing. Can we picture in our mind the person we want to become? As Aviv, Karen and Kyriaki discuss, the activation of our Universalis nature , or universal human, brings online new capacities, perceptions and creativity to help us flex the right muscles that can balance and harmonize the many struggles we may face. Among their insights: • The Universalis inquiry can help humanity at large to pivot from a barbarous operating system of “kill before you get killed” to a way of collaborating based in valiance, chivalry and virtue. • As we enter new domains of possibility, what used to activate and energize us don’t carry the same impact; we feel different sources of energy, new capacities and parts of ourselves. • If the human has a universal nature, and universal expansion is accelerating, are we also accelerating into the future, into the unknown, and who we are becoming today? • To be available in new patterns and new ways, we need to relax the groove, the old patterns held at tension habitually. We make space for new processes, new energy sources, and new configurations. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “As we gradually see the corruption and dysfunctionality of various systems, the parallel is within our inner lives: any psychologies and patternings that don't have the sustaining energies of the now and the currencies that are ongoing into the future, equally are being weakened. And sometimes they will melt, sometimes they will fight, but there is this inner knowing that what may have worked before, well, maybe it's not going to be the enabling system for tomorrow.” (Karen) “When we enter new domains of possibility there is a point whereby we look back and we say, hmm, I realize that what used to activate me very much, and energize me, no longer carries the same impact. I am now energized by different sources of energy, and I am activated in whole new different parts of myself. Sometimes you will even describe new sensitivity, new capacity, new expression, new art.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website The Two Struggles - The Universalis Project #11…

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102 - Evolution, Consciousness, and the New Truth 1:33:43

10 weeks ago1:33:43

1:33:43

Where is our global culture today? How did we get here? What steps might we need to take now to shape a future that could become a saving grace for humanity? It feels special to find a clear, cohesive and compelling picture, one that encompasses the insights that help us make sense and meaning out of the tumultuous times we live in and answer these questions. We dive deep into a new, emerging worldview in this conversation with Steve McIntosh , a leading developmental philosopher focusing on the evolution of consciousness and culture. Steve is the author of Developmental Politics, The Presence of the Infinite, Evolution’s Purpose and Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution. He is co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution . With Steve’s help we trace the major forces that shaped human history and culture, from the Renaissance and Enlightenment, through the fuller development of the Modern era, to Postmodern culture, and into today’s search for a new truth. We view the past with a new understanding that these are not fixed periods of history, but a form of living consciousness that evolves inside us. As the first Enlightenment opened up our understanding of the external universe, the new worldview that has been emerging promises to illuminate the interior universe of consciousness and connection. We actively contribute to the evolutionary process when we bring to life the universal values of truth, beauty and goodness. Many more enlivening insights and profound understandings emerge in the conversation. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “The sense that we know deep in our bones that a better way is possible, that has an influence on our consciousness, and it's what drives cultural evolution. It's not just this quest for the good life, it's also the quest to know what's true, and the quest to make our circumstances more beautiful. More beautiful architecture, more beautiful homes, more beautiful bodies. Those are all ways that we're lured to make things better. And so understanding that as an attractive force, or a kind of gravity, on consciousness, that the evolutionary impulse that our sense is responding to - that begins to illuminate what it is that we're trying to define and understand better.” (Steve) “The greatest human purpose, at least while we're in this world, is to contribute to the evolution of the noosphere because, by doing so, we're contributing to the purpose of the larger universe as a whole. And so just being able to land that truth can really help people appreciate how science and spirituality are pointing to the same thing, properly interpreted, that I think can go a long way toward helping to plant the seeds for this next emergent worldview.” (Steve) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Evolution, Consciousness, and the New Truth with Steve McIntosh…

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101 - God: An Evolving Revelation 1:40:40

12 weeks ago1:40:40

1:40:40

How can a forward-looking, evolution-inclined spirituality, not tied to dogma or history, offer us a sense of meaning and purpose in a time of cultural upheaval powered by AI? Can a metamodern spiritual path also include a new perspective and appreciation of Christianity and the many faces, or dimensions, of Jesus Christ? In the newest conversation in the Portals series exploring metamodern spirituality, Aviv Shahar welcomes back metamodern leader Brendan Graham Dempsey . Brendan is a unique voice who combines a deep personal experience with Christianity and a pioneering study and exploration of metamodern thinking and philosophy. Together, he and Aviv trace the amazing evolution of the human notion and idea of God, from ancient cultures through the Enlightenment and into today. There are new insights into the appearance of Jesus and the rising importance of the individual, which explodes in the modern era with its elevation of self-actualization. (You can also see the discussion about Jesus excerpted below.) The conversation does not just look back, but also forward; in a learning, growing universe, what’s next? What’s on the horizon with our concept of God? Is there a metamodern integration of perceptions that can activate a more powerful inner conductivity and capacity for universal connection? Other ponders and insights include: The cutting edge of spiritual and Christian thought might be to include mystery school ideas without abandoning modern and postmodern reality, while pushing beyond scientific dogma. We are co-participating with the divine to unfold in new directions; to build on what we've already done and continue the dreams we’ve set up; to live the arc of this emergence; to move forward, not back. How do we know? Which faculty of knowing are we talking about when we talk about knowing? New sense organs? Can we integrate conceptual and head ways of knowing with other sources of knowledge? The Christ archetype is how we find the Christ in us; to show up in a Christ-like fashion; a profound universal engagement. These are the depths a metamodern Christianity should explore. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, or try to reengage an older operating system. The challenge is harvesting the best of the ancient system, and hospicing what needs to be left behind. We’re talking about a metamodern move to address what can be described as a Tower of Babel of perspectives: confusion and chaos that give rise to polarization politics, and everything breaking down. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “This gave a new way of looking at all this, in terms of development, that as we go through learning our conceptions of God change. And that really kind of hit home, because as I studied very deeply a lot of the developmental literature, the psychological literature, people who had looked at what they call like stages of faith or religious judgment, and there was a clear way in which the learning process that we go through as people impacts the conceptions that we have of the divine, and the meaning of life, and value, and all these things.” (Brendan) “My entryway into this was through a breakdown of meaning, to go all the way back to my own existential crisis, was the occasion by which I felt the need to find a new way of being in the world. Talking about these things might sound like concepts following concepts, but this is ultimately a lived experience. This is the story of humanity, but it's the story of humans. And so human beings are moving through the world, and we're experiencing the social and collective consequences of all living together with each other through time, figuring out things together, and changing the world around us as a consequence.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website God: An Evolving Revelation with Brendan Graham Dempsey…

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100 - Current Openings #17 – Burning Questions 1:11:43

14 weeks ago1:11:43

1:11:43

Imagine being able to connect with a level of potency , passion and energy that could help reveal even deeper intelligence and meaning to our most compelling “burning questions” — the inquiries and mysteries that drive and inspire us to search for answers. In several ways the potency of an inquiry is generated in how we think about and ask the question. For example, asking “why” attunes our mind to the energetic dimension or core of a question; it can link us to the powerful fuel of our emotions: e-motion, or energy in motion and flow. Does the question form up when we reach the leading edge of our experience — just beyond the limits of our knowledge or comfort zone? The leading edge is the place where we prod and sense our way into the unknown and can find the revelation of the “new” answer trying to find us. Why does any of this matter? As we have discovered in Portals , a potent inquiry or contemplation can activate and energize the far-reaching faculties that enable connection with our universal nature and possibility. We delve deeper into the meaning and mystery of profound “burning questions” and the art of the inquiry in this special conversation with Aviv Shahar and Portals collaborator David Price Francis . Aviv and David invited several Portals friends to bring their own burning questions and together look for new insights, including: There’s a different way of living a life — not protecting who or what we have discovered, the titles and identity. But unlocking the mystery of who we are becoming, and its powerful energy and inspiration. As we move on, we leave behind what brought us to this point, with respect, honor and gratitude, but we don't copy them. The universe moves on, too. It’s the twin dynamics of mastery of the past and the mystery of the future. Maybe we should imagine not just our carbon footprint, but our cosmic footprint — the ripple from our life into our communities, the planet and universe, and embrace responsibility for that. Evolution is not over; it isn’t based on a signal from the past. We can see evidence in established world religions: there isn’t a reduce, reuse, recycle system. The progress of artificial intelligence and technology is the external evolution of form; the key to humanity’s future is the ongoing evolution of the organic forms of the planet and the human. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “Building on this, where you talk about 'what do you want?', which to me is one of the entry points into the inquiry of purpose, I would say that leading oneself in a chaotic world one wants to be grounded and anchored in some guiding principle and guiding purpose that is central and centering for a person's life. You first need to actually ask, well, how do you find that sense of purpose, that sense of mission?” (Aviv) “There is a core impulse in human life, or in life at large. It's the impulse of life expressing itself in human life, which is the impulse of freedom and liberation. Life wants to express itself and come to its fuller possibility and expression, and be free. And you see that that is arising in each and every one of us, we want to discover what is our natural talent? What can we do? How do we live into the fullest freedom of our potential?” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Current Openings #17 – Burning Questions…

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099 - Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 4: A Growing Space for the Soul 53:25

16 weeks ago53:25

53:25

In the third installment we described two ways to apply Einstein’s admonition when he observed that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. The first practice involved placing the problem you are working to solve inside an even bigger problem. The second practice involved the cultivation of a symphonic loom of expanded considerations. The realization latent in this admonishment from Uncle Albert is that we cannot expect to stumble on new perceptions with the same toolset we used to fashion the map of meaning that generated the problems we now confront. Moreover, the faculties and “organs” of seeing, intuiting, and believing used when we generated our worldview are likely insufficient in our search for new ways of perceiving with which to be able to solve the problems we face. In this and in the following installments we are embarking on the search for ways to unlock new perceptions, connections, and intuitions. We seek the activation of sense organs that naturally court and grow the spaces available for the soul to liberate. We will develop this pathway one step at a time and invite you to engage and play with the practices we demonstrate. This work is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “We don’t seek to empty the mind by releasing identification with passing thoughts as a way of calming the survival wiring in the brain. Instead, this work into the Soul invites you to free the mind to its connective communion capacity, where it brings to the Soul potent energies to nourish its two higher natures.” (Aviv) “As we develop these conversation pathways into the soul, naturally we confront several challenges. A key challenge is finding the courage to drop the lies we have been told about what a human is. There is a catch. How do you let go of misleading lies you have been programmed to believe in, without having new or elevated or clearer perspectives that can replace those convictions and beliefs?” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 4: A Growing Space for the Soul…

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098 - The Universalis Project #10 - Why the World is Breaking Down 1:03:42

18 weeks ago1:03:42

1:03:42

Even if we’re familiar with the themes of evolutionary change and upgrade that run through Portals , what’s happening in the world today seems startling: the operating system that enables modern life as we know it appears to be crashing. The key questions now: Is this an irreversible slide into self-elimination? Does evolution ever offer a chance for reboot and renewal? If so, how would we spot new universal intelligence nudging its way into humanity? Our understanding of the “operating system” comes out of the Portals exploration of the progression of human and planetary history as part of the current epoch, or larger universal cycle of change and upgrade. What we call the “Blue” phase of the epoch (which corresponds to the seven colors of the spectrum) brought to humanity the energy and intelligence for collaboration and working together. It was the power of cooperation that allowed the building of cities, political and economic systems, and the civility that enables the orderly and peaceful flow of everyday life in all its many nuances. The multiple crises of ecology and culture that are transforming the planet today suggest the modern Blue system is no longer sufficient in the face of an Indigo and Violet intensification. We see the evidence in the eruption of wars, environmental destruction and political chaos. How did we get here? What happens next? As we discover in the latest Homo Universalis conversation, even with a failing operating system, the evolutionary process offers the opportunity for renewal and regeneration. Aviv Shahar , Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou share their ideas and insights. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “Could this be one of the ways we are already being naturalized and acclimatized to the actuality of universal life? Where you can be together with others and there is a chain reaction, running revelatory process; some will then put it to music, some will put it to art, some will put it to writing, some will put it to the causes they serve. Okay, is this a way to think about universal life: you are engaged in an ongoing revelation, a running revelation, rather than one singular revelation for a life?” (Aviv) “That is the inquiry we are now facing, what is the operating system that needs to emerge? I don't know that we have the solution or the answer here. But you're beginning to articulate some of the principles that are likely to be critical in the new operating system. The principle you just described is, it has to have the capacity to integrate and bridge all interests.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website The Universalis Project #10 - Why the World is Breaking Down…

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097 - Normalizing the Extraordinary: In the Metamodern God Lab 1:17:56

20 weeks ago1:17:56

1:17:56

A laboratory is where we’d expect to find a safe space of discovery and purpose; an environment that supports experimenting with diverse ideas and mysteries in the search for truth. Add in an atmosphere of mutual trust and acceptance, and now we’ve created an ecology that invites something even deeper — a God lab. Imagine a God lab as an intensified spiritual retreat, a gathering of like-minded and like-souled individuals seeking new understanding and experience with the divine. In this conversation, we are invited to appreciate a metamodern God lab as a community, created through the shared exploration of the sacred by people who each represent a unique expression of universal possibility. In a metamodern God lab, every person is recognized and accepted as they experiment with creating and evolving their own vision, practices and art; an ecology where people find the inner balance that allows them to embody more fully at the spiritual leading edge of themselves. We get to explore in this conversation the nature and possibilities of emergent metamodern spirituality with two metamodern leaders, Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey . (This is the latest in a series of conversations sensing deeper into metamodern spirituality.) Layman and Brendan discuss with Aviv Shahar the recently completed Metamodern God Lab at the Sky Meadow retreat in Vermont. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I think what I'm seeing, what I'm taking away from this weekend, is the sheer importance of setting up these kinds of hive-like fields for the bees to go to and from. And if you get a few new ones each time it starts to spread. And ideally, we would have dozens or hundreds of things like this around the world to be a generator of the leading edge of the culture. As much as we need all these different subsets, what we fundamentally need is the right kind of a scene that's just a constant generator of all the different tentacles of the leading edge.” (Layman) “I think there’s something deeply important about having a place where we come together and gather, and connect, and feel this vibe and these energies with each other, and sort of remember our connections with each other and to what we’re doing, and the sorts of aims and goals that we have, and the shared vision and the friendship, the relational connections. And being able to continue to deepen; increasing deepening into the relational field of it all is something that I find deeply renewing, and it’s kind of like returning to that well of relationship with this incredible community.” (Brendan) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Normalizing the Extraordinary: In the Metamodern God Lab with Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey…

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096 - Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery 1:04:47

22 weeks ago1:04:47

1:04:47

How many of us remember having what some people call a “chrysalis” moment? An octave leap, with mind-opening perceptions, in real time. A powerful flow of energy, a quickening, triggered by a connection or breakthrough that can happen anywhere, at any time, and transform us and the circumstance we’re in. The chrysalis we probably know as the middle stage of the three-step transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. It’s a beautiful example of growth and change that happens in stages, or gradations, and is often generally described as a change in octaves, or levels. An octave change can be a long journey of refinement, or it can feel like a quantum leap, in an instant. Why an octave in the first place? What is the benefit of an ordered transition or progression from one state to another? For example, from the physical and dense to the energetic and spiritual? The universe likes octaves; it’s the engineering that facilitates change and innovation; a natural technology that enables the safe entry and movement through successively higher energetic states. How does it work? Can we really “leap” from a lower octave to a higher one? We turn for insights to Aviv Shahar and collaborator David Price Francis . Their conversation is the latest in the “ Current Openings ” series. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “There can't be an octave leap without new energy coming in from somewhere. So even when we see water boiling, there has to be the application of heat from somewhere to cause the molecules to get excited, and then it changes state. So when I think of now a quantum leap, or a change of octave, there's going to be a new energy incoming, a quickening as you say, a new energy incoming from somewhere to cause that to happen.” (David) “Teaching number one in there, which is we have to do whatever it is we're doing in the fullest possible way because, in actuality, the release of the portal from one octave to the next, that threshold, is reached for by the full realization of the octave we are in. And teaching number two you offered, there has to be resistance built in. If you actually try to bypass or skip the steps without growing by resistance, you may visit a higher octave, but you will not have the infrastructure to hold it in a sustainable way.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery…

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095 - The Universalis Project #9 - Deepening in Evolutionary Mysteries 57:51

24 weeks ago57:51

57:51

If we’re already diving deep into the core mysteries of the human experience — such as how to partner with a new wave of evolution and engage with the universe — how do we push even further on the edge of discovery? Can we go even deeper into the mysteries? What’s the real benefit? A curious feature of engaging with the natural human impulse to grow and refine is that as we develop, we begin to activate amazing innate capacities for connecting to intelligence and influence that are universal in origin and source. This, in turn, enables even deeper diving and connection to the mysteries of life and our evolving future. We explore the activation of the universal human in the Portals series the Homo Universalis Project. By deepening in our intention and pursuit of meaning in a chaotic time, we build stability and a stronger foundation, expand inner space, and birth new sensitivities and capacities. In doing so, we become an antidote for a superficial world consumed by multiple global crises. We discover more about the nature of the inner space in The Ghost and the Inner Conclave and The Guru Trap and the Golden Shadow conversations with Jeff Vander Clute. We also deepen to become available for an even bigger mission, bigger task, in our service to the new pulse of evolutionary possibility washing over humanity and the planet. Not a bad reason to dive in and deepen in the cosmic mysteries unfolding all around us. But how do we deepen? We explore more deeply the why’s and how’s of deepening in the newest chapter of the Homo Universalis conversations (recorded in September 2023) with Aviv Shahar , Karen Heney , and Kyriaki Nikandrou . Among their perceptions: We deepen through the art of abiding, of staying and being with; deciding to not be captured by the impatience and velocity of this postmodern time; to be immersed with what we are exploring. Homo Universalis is the liberation of latent capacities and sensitivities in the human, a process of release rather than acquiring something from the outside; the universe is liberated in us. We’re not merely trading words and concepts. There is a potent, energetic dimension we describe as a form of psycho-spiritual activation, almost like psycho-spiritual open heart surgery. To be self-authoring opens up a whole world of stories, narration and characters; humans have a wonderful ability to bring things together, join things, separate things; to create poems and art with a quality of refinement. A self-arising life is an intentional conscious application to further something you've chosen; to bring the self into it with creative generation — bringing something to life that might never have exist. This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “That's a good reason to do deepening work, because unless you offer more of the depth of who you are and what you can bring to the table, unless you do that, unless you offer that facility, you will only be able to realize your purpose and what you love to the degree of the depth that you make available.” (Aviv) “A deepening process is moving away from the linear shortcut that we are so much wired to in this post-modern age. Somebody asks a question and you try to answer it in the shortest possible way. Well, that's a skill one needs to have as well, for example, in the business world, but our endeavor is more to access the latent capacities such that we indeed give rise to the multiplicity that we can be.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website The Universalis Project #9 - Deepening in Evolutionary Mysteries…

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094 - Evolving Together #4 - The Human Radio Set 49:24

26 weeks ago49:24

49:24

It may be time to finally change channels , or — if we really want better reception and perception — to trade in that old analogue transmitter and receiver for the best, state-of-the-art technology in the universe. We are referring, by analogy, to the most advanced radio set ever created: the human mind and network of finer, higher faculties — capable of tuning into any frequency, from humanmade, to planetary, to the deepest reaches of the cosmos. Its potential is vast and vital to our ongoing evolution and future. Much of our precious daily life is likely spent inside a narrow band of energy, often worrying about relationships, career or cultural and ecological crises. With awareness and training, it’s possible to tune sensitive inner technology to transmit and receive on universal frequencies natural to the human design. It’s activating a higher human operating system. It’s also a development journey enhanced and quickened by our companions and communities. Mutual respect and trust can help heal pain and trauma, as we become the signal that enables the emergence of new possibility in one another, evolving together. We explore the realms of mutual transformation and the amazing human radio set in the latest of our Portals series Evolving Together , with Aviv Shahar and longtime Portals friends Nigel Geeves and Well . TWEETABLE QUOTES “One of the things I do in my development work with myself is I talk to myself. Why would you talk to yourself? We live in a time where people often seek to find a new feeling and a new experience as the first move they make. In my journey, I've discovered that actually you want to introduce a new frame of mind, a new way of thinking, and that then enables you to heal, transmogrify, metabolize, sublimate, and actually access new feelings and new experience.” (Aviv) “I think what you're talking about here is beginning to open up the profound realization that yes, we are universal beings. And, therefore, it's possible for us to develop a higher operating system, which literally operates at universal level as we live upon the planet. And via that higher operating system we can do something about the conditioning that's happened to the soul.” (Well) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception Website Aviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s Twitter Aviv’s Website Evolving Together #4 - The Human Radio Set…

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093 - Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 3: Symphonic Seven-fold Soul Work 45:11

28 weeks ago45:11