Please Note: While we’re happy to provide the below transcript for those that’d prefer to read than listen, listening to this episode will provide the best experience. The text transcript alone may not capture exactly what our interviewee intended to say.

Jean: All right.

Alison: There we are. Yeah, we did it. Okay. Your voice is very good.

Jean: Oh, I don’t. I don’t love my voice.

Alison: Really?

Alison: It’s very peaceful.

Jean: I know, everyone says that. I feel like I’m lulling people to sleep.

Alison: Okay, Wake up, we have to wake up. Come on, Energy. You do you.   All right, so now we’re talking to someone today who you actually have known for a long time.

Jean: William Linville. Love this man.

Alison: Tell me.

Jean: Yeah. So I’ve known William…  I’ve known I met William probably back in 2012, 2013, and I heard him on another podcast, if you will. And I just thought what he had to say was… It just moved me and I felt it was the truth for me. And he has really been a huge champion in my life. He’s really helped me overcome a lot of fear and I love him.

Alison: Oh, that’s beautiful.

Jean: And I love his wife.

Alison: Oh, that’s excellent. I love that. So I was not as familiar with William. I had I had heard of him through you, but he is fascinating to me. Yeah, I think he really is right. So let’s listen and then we’ll we’ll come back and talk.

Jean: Great.

William: Hello, everyone. How’s it going?

Alison: Hi. Hi.

William: How are you doing, Miss Allison?

Alison: Hello, William.

William:  Are you having a blast?

Alison: Yeah.

William: Awesome. Awesome, awesome.

Alison: I am. It’s so good to meet you in person, because I’ve heard so much about you for so many years.

William: Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. And likewise. And you too.  What are you ladies been up to?

Jean: Well, I’m getting over Covid, William.

William: Oh, really? Well, that sounds like fun. You’re having a good long time.

Jean: Just a lot of alone time and getting caught up on things that you know, I maybe pushed aside for a while, but now my closets are super clean, and I’ve caught up on calling everyone that I’ve ever known and…hahah

William: Counting the cracks in the in the fingernails and toenails.  haha

Alison: Exactly.

William: Counting the pours  in the body, you know, all the fun stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Or you feel better now?

Jean: I am. I’m feeling much better. Much better. And this is such a treat to have you with us, because I know, you know, you and I have known each other for– I was thinking about this William, for probably over ten years.

William: Yeah. Yeah, it’s been a while. It’s been great… On one hand, it seems like eternity, On the other, it’s like a blink of an eye. Yeah.

Jean: It really has.  And Allison has heard me many times speak about you, William, And so now we get to introduce you to our listeners from Inside Wink World. And um Allison, do you have anything to say?

Alison: I’m just so happy to meet you. And you’re one of the more interesting humans I’ve ever heard about or read about.

William: Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. It’s been quite the interesting journey.

Alison: I bet. I bet. And how did you two meet?

William: Well, Jean came out to our place in Vegas where we were living, and we did a an interview. That’s how we met in the physical. But how did we meet Jean, was it a referral, right?

Jean: Yeah, I think. William, You were on a show,not Beyond the Ordinary, but a, you know, a show where they interview spiritual healers or, you know, just people that are helping humanity awaken. And you are on a show, and I just thought your interview was amazing and something that that we can start off with– William, if you wouldn’t mind, You talk a lot about your vibratory levels.

William: Yes.

Jean: And you talk a lot about marrying your lower and higher vibratory levels. Can you say why that’s so important now more than ever?

William: Like right now. haha

Jean: Like, in this time of of planet Earth, I mean, I guess it’s always been important, but, um. Do you sense that we are bringing in and allowing more of our God self to emanate through us?

William: Absolutely. And what’s going on is there’s so much going on, especially internally and then externally. So internally, you know, it’s kind of a dance. I call it a  Divine romance. Romance with you and the whole universe as a whole. So what happens is like ,there’s all this unveiling moment going on within you. So you look at this, we can call it– To me, it’s all dimensional, but for the sake of understanding, what the linear context You know, we call it incarnational realms. So, times and spaces that you’ve had many different experiences and as a soul. So you’ve been the queen of France, you’ve been kings, you’ve been coal miners, you’ve been natives, you’ve lived in the jungles, you’ve lived on the islands. You’ve lived in the Midwest, far west, far East, um, all over the planet. You as creator have picked up a form being that of humanity or human. Hu being ancient frequency and tone of creator through the mammalian species which is expanding and embodying and expanding through creator man. That’s not meant as a gender. It’s meant as creator through the mammalian species. Hence his hue man– hue, being the ancient frequencies and tones originally of creator from first separation to now, really, except the paradigm shifted, which means dear ones have, through the evolutionary cycle of things, became denser and denser as you go through.– You know, the Times of Aquarius, You go through the Dark Ages, you go through the freezing and the ice ages on  imam, which would call it more like the absence of you.

William: So when you started identifying that and perceiving that you were no more than a mind and a body on a planet. Now what’s happened is humanity got stuck from the solar plexus down. The solar plexus is your levels of carnality. So it’s where you go into fear. You go into sink or swim, fight and flight. You go into survival. It’s the instinctual levels of surviving. It could be surviving the physical flesh, like when you would be hightailing it away from dinosaurs or danger or running away from the cliff rather than running off the cliff, you know, being chased, by more villagers are coming after you or whatever it may be from standing out. And that has created, you know, from the Crusades to the hunting down the witches, warlocks on and on. Now, what’s happening is all of those incarnational states, which once again I call dimensional, that’s how you’re able to take a breath, go through past incarnational clearings, is that you’re bringing that stuff up. You’re asking it to unveil itself. The things that are still affecting you now in this body, on this planet, in this life. I call it phobias, anxieties, like recently, like every dear one and their brothers, dogs, chickens and cats have had anxiety attacks. It’s coming up in waves. And what that is, it’s all those fight and flight responses. Kicking up  to the influx of you as your higher levels, which is still you open and as creator vibrating and waking up within its incarnation, but as higher vibratory levels that are coming up as you but then as coming up through the soul level, it’s coming through the emotional calibration latiswork, through the sub psyche, all the way through the psyche and the soul level journeyers are waking up as well

William: even going beyond the Trinity State as spirit and soul in form. So it’s like the lights are coming on, but all these hidden away, call it secrets, call it hidden away… Um, I call it misperceptions of yourself, misunderstandings of yourself, misperceptions that you made all these decisions just like you as creator said, let there be light. And there was light. Well, you said, let there be danger. Let there be fear. And this is unsafe. This is safe. I love everyone except my family or  everyone’s wonderful , they’re all creator except my mother in law, I know she’s demonic. haha

William:  So from here, you know, all this stuff is rising up before you to look at it right in the eyes, to say enough. To look at it and I’ll call it resolve it, come to terms with it, to where it just no longer holds, nor has that power over you. And didn’t we get into the old paradigm stuff, you know, like, what is fear?  What is darkness? It’s interesting.

William: They’re both, as far as I’m concerned, major umbrella phrases…that doesn’t really say anything except to me, it says the absence of You.  So you’re going into these areas within your cells, your atoms, your molecules, sub molecules to the human genome through the master cell, the DNA, the RNA through each and every charkra level vortex, from the crown, the third eye, front mental and back, through the throat from the lower back heart front, middle and back. It’s starting to merge down through the solar plexus front, middle and back through the creator chakra level vortex, front, middle and back, all the way thru your root chuckled Vortex, and you’re reopening them… But you’re not there to try to relive anything. You’re there to see it for what it is. Ideally, I would have you find the benefit because it’s got you to where you’re at now, which is- that’s where, that’s part of the healing up process.. Is when you can actually look at it now, not rehashing the same judgment, not rehashing the same issue that –yep there’s my dad. Yep. Still hate him. Okay. And it’s more like, it’s now– where I walk dear ones through is- understanding where the dear one was coming from, understanding him, waking up to, you know, honestly, I don’t care who it is, what it is, or even the extreme. It truly was not personal about you as a personal being. Does that better clarify that, Jean?

Jean: Yeah.  That’s so great,because that is exactly how you’ve helped me over many years, is actually showing me someone’s intention so that I wouldn’t take it personally…I think that is one of the things you really helped me with, William was to differentiate between what was mine and what was someone else’s stuff. So thank you, thank you for that.

Alison: Could you explain just a little bit– I saw on your website, you just said it just now… Fear is the absence of You. And am I am I correct in understanding that to mean the absence of the baggage that I’m carrying or these personal judgments? Is that the You that it’s the absence of?

William: No, that’s all the stuff that is not you.. You know, like when you look in the mirror and it’s a fun game to play with yourself, but it’s also– you know, I always look for the truth serum in everything. Show me the truth. Not what I want to think. Not what I want to hear. Not what I think others want to hear or think. Show me the truth. So when you stand in front of the mirror, like a physical mirror, you know– In massage school, when I was going to massage school to learn about anatomy, learning about how my own body works, you know, much less facilitating. One of the exercises was to sit in front of the mirror totally naked, like up on the vanity. Or you can be just with a whole body mirror or whatever, you know, sit there totally naked, do your best for a moment just to become more clear to where you can just sit there. Ideally, you’re going to hear it first– All the criticisms. Secondly, that over there is definitely picking up on gravity. And over there,.. Yeah, A couple of months from now with those who, you know, who needs a mammogram, you know?  And all of that stuff– and where I was wondering what I was hitting when I was walking… Oh, it’s my buttocks, you know, so where we get past all the criticizes. Yep, shouldn’t have had that donut,  you know that’s just all the conscious mind thoughts.

Jean: Mhm.

William: So for a minute we just take another breath. We let that go, because it will pass…. I gotta get the hair done, and then all that stuff’s gonna pass. (thoughts like) The ears are too high. They’re too low. They’re too big. Too small.  And it’s like, Yeah, I knew there was something about taxi cabs with these ears— we just let all that stuff pass now. Then we just still sit there. We still stare. We don’t get a book. We don’t try to become preoccupied. We really just be right there. The criticizers gonna pass, that’s all of 20% of the mind, the conscious mind and all the emotions that like, it’s like all that harshness starts to come up and you start to realize and feel, or I’d say more so than feel experience the emotions starting to die off with it. And then, it’ll be quiet for a few moments. Maybe three. Maybe five. It’s different for everyone. But then, you’re going to start having these memories now. Memories are an interesting thing because many perceive it linearly. Like yesterday, the day before, when I was three years old, when I was in the womb… Blah, blah, blah. Well, in reality, it’s not about way back when, linearly. It’s still dimensionally, still going on. The way you always know, is that you sit there, you watch. If it was not dimensional, you would not be able to still experience the energy around it. Because right now, when I say, all right Allison– let’s you and I just go back to relive dinner last night. And what’s the first glimpse? And as you go to the first glimps, how much is your mouth salivating and how is your body responding?

Alison: I’m hungry. I’m hungry for more pasta.

Speaker3: Yeah, exactly. And now, if you look at that for a minute, you really follow that to its source, you’ll be given, you’ll be shown from yourself, the first time you when you first had pasta and then when you first decided you liked it. And the interesting thing is, it’s really not about the pasta. It was about the ambience going on when you first had pasta.

Alison: Well, it makes me say, I wanted to say– being with my grandmother.

William: That’s exactly what I was about to bring up, that connection that made the pasta so wonderful. Okay. Now that’s dimensional. That’s not Grandma 20 years ago. Okay. That’s why you’re able to still feel her presence around one of the billions of reasons, but including that her presence is around you. But from here, it you go beyond that for a moment, as you’re sitting in front of the mirror, then you start looking, hearing, experiencing all these conversations. To me, I call it like– Doors that are still open that have never really fully been closed nor resolved. Doesn’t mean they’re all derogatory. It just means it’s just different parts of yourself (And this is where I do call it at times soul fragmentations), depending on it’s areas of yourself that got fragmented, scattered. It’s a lot like PTSD or dear ones are still stuck in that moment where the soul’s been fragmented. So, it’s like constantly running and running and repeat. Haven’t been able to yet, at that moment be able to welcome back of the the rest of themselves to where they’re at now. Now, you go beyond that in front of the mirror and you start listening to all these dialogues and then you start to become, you start to recognize… eventually, that you’re no longer that little child. You’re the third person here. You’re observing what’s going on. You’re watching. To now we can take that part of you, pick them up, embrace them, and now welcome them back to you cleared and purified.

William: Or, we can welcome forth the ascended host, the angelic, the arc-angelic realms. Whatever presents for you at that moment to take them by the hand and walk them home. Because that’s also when we get into, you know, the different emotional age of decisions where all the decisions you made in that circumstance, how that circumstance is still affecting you, even though your body is older,  you made all these judgments about how the world works, about your value, about what you deserve, what you don’t deserve, about whatever, however– worthy, not worthy, lovable, not lovable because of x, y, z. So where now, we get to look at it clearer as a third person. Now we have the brilliant opportunity to undecide what those decisions that were made to either re-decide or just undecided. (acknowledge to yourself) You know what? Ijust don’t require any more stuff in my cellar, being that of the sub-psych, because it just doesn’t benefit me anymore. And now, depending on the extremes, you can walk out of the back of your shoes, step into the back, of it’s a perpetrator or whatever, and then looking through at their eyes back at you and what you’re going to find.. You do a scan, where you can really see how they really felt about you. You’ll find more often than not they were jealous. They were envious. They wanted what you had.

William: They wanted their purity back. They wanted their innocence back. They saw that you had it, and they they were just so enraged and they wanted it back. And they’re really crying inside. They’re sobbing inside and they’re acting out in all these different ways. But it’s more out of fear, tournament, not even about you. And you can go through their emotional age capacity when they decided those same decisions, they weren’t lovable and everyone’s against them.  Which will also have you eventually, you know, understand them further to where now– What’s been fear, what’s been hatred, resentment, terror that’s been running your life ..now transcends into compassion. And you’re also assisting them to heal up to current age. And then you step back, in the back of your shoes with now that clarity to where that’s no longer keeping you held hostage anymore. And I’m not saying for a minute that we’re going to sit here and try to justify rationalize that their behavior was okay. Right. It wasn’t okay.  But for resolution, maybe that situation made you more independent. Maybe it had pushed you to become more powerful. It pushed you into waking up sooner, quicker. It pushed you to know to put your foot down,to say no more. And it accelerated your journey into waking up to who you really are– But rather than continuing the hamster wheel of “Leave it to Beaver” and “The Brady Bunch” and pretending.

Alison: Right.  Can I ask ask another another question about the idea of souls, and the idea of if we are all that is then then how are we also individuated souls? Like you had said that there were so many experiences that we’ve had. Is that me as an individual soul or is that like there’s this huge energy soul and I’m dipped in and mixed up with that? Does that make is that does that make sense as a question to you?

William: Yeah, it does. So getting back to first separation. You as Source decided to split itself off. It goes beyond that.wWhen you decided to create the heavens and the earth and all the planets, you decided to create something that you could create to where you could expand upon yourself as creator as a whole.. which once again is genderless. Now, you decided, okay, you created the mountains, the lands, the oceanic realms, the plant kingdom, mineral kingdom, and, you know, the animal kingdom, plant, kingdom, on and on and on. And at first, you would split yourself off, you would experience what it was like to step into the form of a gazelle or a deer. You would hop around. You would you would really just experience hopping around, procreating, mating, and you would experience eating consumption. You would actually, for the first time ever, experience what it was like to animate through a form. And lo and behold, you know, one thing led to another until you decided, okay, now let’s expand upon this now, but let’s create a form of our own that would make it more unique and really a more personable journey, not just through a kingdom. So you created what’s now called humanity– Hu, the ancient sound of Crater, through a mammalian form, you created a form that has senses, that can has corpuscles that touch. That is the only one in the universe that has the the mind came later on, but has the ability to process free will on and on and on.

William: So you created the divine masculine and the divine feminine with the ability to procreate. Not to get preoccupied by, but being the ability to create a civilization that would continue and continue and continue to express, express love and continue to expand upon itself. Then, you kept noticing as creator, that the forms kept walking off cliffs, the forms kept becoming breakfast, lunch and dinner for the dinosaurs, creatures of the planet, on and on. There was not this thing called intellectual consciousness, like divine intellect, common sense. And you can see globally that’s been very rare these days. haha.. So now it’s coming back online. The divine intellect. So and now where, Okay, if I pick my body and if I walk over the edge of this cliff, I can now analyze that…if I take one more step, chances are my body is going to fall and, you know, bond with the planet. Now, this is where we’re playing with your intellect. This is well beyond fear. Then when this all came about, then you decided to create a thing called a soul. A soul that would be a record keeper. It’s kind of like a hard drive for yourself. That would dictate, take notes, record every experience you ever experience in a body on a planet. So, you took those experiences into the soul and you also took your divine intellect, you took your heart, but at that time, the heart wasn’t really a bid deal because you just were like, you just were love.

William: So it wasn’t come back to your heart, it wasn’t don’t get hijacked by the mind, blah, blah, blah. And then, you started more and more listening to the intellect and letting the intellect, you know, the whole metaphor of the Adam and the Eve, the Cain and the Abel.. On and on and on… you know, all those metaphors about, you know, the woman eating the apple, playing with the snake and blah, blah, blah and of course, you know, it’s kind of obvious, it always comes back anti-female. (haha) Now from here, you go into Cain and Abel, you know, the linebacker and the wide receiver or whatever, and, you know, then we have creator going against creator, which is where dear ones started buying into that the intellect was who they were, rather than who they were that HAD an intellect. So the soul took all this data, all this information, and before you knew it, the Akashic records were created. So now, you became denser and denser and denser, heavier and heavier and heavier to where you started… It wasn’t a fall from grace and all those fairy tales, but every time you would go against yourself, become more and more identified with the intellect that now, we call the ego…the ego that was created, created emotion– emotion is simple–it’s energy that’s bound up. So when you create a specific identity or a judgment, it’s like throwing a rock in a flowing river to where eventually that river gets dammed and the energy that’s that water that was moving now becomes emotion. So emotion is the absolute result from judgment. Now all of those, doesn’t matter what the judgement is (positive or negative).. It’s judgment. It’s just you as creator commanded there be light. You as creator commanded that your neighbors, you know, is a jackass. So the same thing. It’s just where are we going to put the command. Now  you’re saying that with great force at times, you’re teaching your children, don’t run into street! Oh, my God! And you come out yelling and screaming, which, of course, no secret your kids going to freezing get ran over by the bus because they’re freaking out because you’re screaming, and now we have a real issue on our hands. But then there’s that angst and then your kid makes a decision… I’m bad, I’m terrible, I made a mistake, I’m not smart, I’m not bright. And just I deserve to bond with the Goodyears or Michelin, depending on what they’re using these days. hahahaha–And ..there’s something wrong with me, and on and on and on, which only makes it denser and denser and denser.

William: So eventually you started forgetting more of who You are, became more identified with the judgments, now, which are called the ego, which is a total false identity because it’s still not you. And then with all the energy behind it, I’ve never heard of anyone having a love breakdown and I got to go to see the shrink. You know, it’s always an emotional breakdown, right? And the shrink would know what to do if you had a love breakdown, Right. Because you love too much. What? You know, there’s books about women who love too much. I don’t think there was any about the males. You see, once again, the women are screwed. hahaha…. So from here, you know, what is that? What is it to mean, to love too much? There’s many get confused between love and emotion, infatuation and I’m attracted to you because blah, blah, blah. Now we get back to carnality and that’s why there’s such a market for perfumes, etc..  It’s activating the olfactory nerve and putting off a different sensory neuron in the brain that says all of a sudden I’m attracted to you, but it’s really the scent. So it’s just interesting. There’s like all these different, like rabbit holes of understanding yourself. It’s not complicated.  It’s so simple, but sometimes it’s not complicated, but it is very, uh, interesting when you’re starting to wake up and arise to understand yourself. It’s kind of like my favorite color is purple or the pasta.

William: You know, why do I enjoy what I enjoy? Is it me that enjoys it, or am I trying to recreate the memory? Now, this isn’t to overcomplicate things, it’s more about understanding yourself so you can become all of yourself. Now, to finish your question, the answer to your question is that, dear ones, that’s when they started waking up to eventually… That, okay, now we start to come forth, whether it be Francis or Sananda, Yeshua, Ben Joseph, the Krishna, Paramahansa Yogananda, whether it be the Buddha and all these different areas where dear ones started waking up to becoming a Trinity spirit, soul in form… which is still, I mean, awesome, great job, great achievement, but it still holds you in the karmic latticework. So I maybe spirit that’s animating this body, but I still have a soul, I still have a mind. So now I got to make up with this thing called karma for all the other dear ones that I screwed dimensionally or Incarnationally now that they’re going to come, they’re going to run me over or whatever, and I’m going to lay there going the opposite extreme and saying, Well, I’m sure I must have deserved it. You know, it’s like, seriously? When they back up five times and say it was an accident?

William: So you woke up to you.. You being the consciousness in the body that goes beyond the soul and the mind and the spirit, which is you as creator now clearing out the Akashic records, not in that same cyclical cycle. Vows, contracts, agreements, all of these things that basically it’s just different words that says I’m wearing different shackles, but now at least I’m aware of them now. Now you’re waking up to them and waking up to you as creator and letting all the rest of the stuff die off, which goes back to the ozone layers and all that other stuff, which is technically the astral planes of consciousness dying off because these other entities, energy, softwares are being walked home and assisted home that have still been lingering around, lost in the astral planes.. which in religion they call it purgatory, blah, blah, blah, but this is where we’re taking them beyond that, to make a full transition back into their source consciousness, whether they pick up a body or not, that’s up to them now,  it’s not because they weren’t able to make a full transition Home.. This soul level is dying off, dissolving, reaching a clear slate to where now you have You as your higher levels, you with your entourage your Angelic, Archangelica host realms emminating through form but also surrounded with what I call your true family.

Jean: Wow! You know, William, you say all of this and it’s so fascinating to me and inspiring…and I think this is a great time to link into the class, the class that you’re offering in September…about waking up, shedding these shackles and… Can you talk about your class that’s coming up?

William: Yeah, yeah. It’s a wonderful class. It goes on for three months and one part is clearing out, purifying, divinitizing, opening and accelerating. And the other part is like re-steering, re journeying of who you are and a lot of activations, amplifications and then a lot of coming to terms with what’s working for you, what’s not working for you and being able to clear the decks within yourself…. physical, mental, emotional. We’re playing with you on all levels, not just your physical body, not just your emotional levels–I mean we’re playWng with relationships. We’re playing with finances, we’re playing with, why does the same thing keep occurring? Breaking down dissolving patterns, bringing clarity and also disillusionment to them and going for, you know, bringing you as creator and beginning to remember, but also beginning to re embody within and through yourself of and as creator, expressing through (the body). And even more than that, it’s shifting from experiencing emotion to now feeling you. And then, like we talked about earlier, about the vibratory levels and frequencies in megahertz of Light. It’s a speed in which the cells are vibrating in the body, the cells, the molecules, the atoms, sub atoms, and it’s assisting those to speed up and also dissolving the crustationous that’s been holding them at a very much lower frequency vibratory level and then clearing out the cause, core and the effect, all the identifications, all the stuff that has you live your life like you’re in a cave, like in a tunnel vision mode, and where you start to regain You, you start to take your power back.

William: You also start to wake up and arise in so many different ways where you start now, recognizing, opening up, becoming more receptive, not like you’re constantly dutiful working for something, including like surviving in a body on a planet because you’re never put here to survive…you’re here to live and express, animate, radiate and open up, and then playing also with optimum health and well-being body mind and you, and then the integration of the rest of you and the connection with you, your entourage, which I call your real family, the Angelic, Archangelica and the host realms, and where you’re able to start going more and more direct, even receiving, expressing and receiving, having dialogues and connections with, you know, those dear ones in your entourage that  have always been there. But now you’re starting to reach a point where you’re able to dance together, flow together, and live more in your natural birthright rather than what you’ve been told, what you’ve been taught all the day to day — wash, rinse, repeat levels, into more of why you’re here in the first place and to where there’s no end of what, when, where and how you can experience, express and also receive love in every way.. whether it be an intimate, loving relationship with the heart, whether it be finances, abundance of money, whether it be homes, vehicles, whatever that calls to you, not about sex, power, greed, but about the enjoyment of why you’re here in a body on a planet to live, to enjoy, thrive, receive, express, and becoming lighter and lighter, not just barely getting by each month. I mean, that’s all taught too–you witness, you see it all around, you see the high end and you see the low end, and then you’re in the middle trying to escape, not being in the gutter like the dear one over there , that I know is deemed mental health issues… chances are they’re just loaded with entities, which are from discarnates that have not made a full transition and whatever else they’re running through and running from that, but then all of your vows, contracts, agreements you’ve made, you’re still playing out by default about money is the root of all evil, on and on and on. So we have all these things that you’re looking at, you’re still trying to resolve, wake up to, go beyond rather than just living your life in this tiny little cocoon. Because you know, what happens when you’re physically standing at the top of the planet.. right there in you, the silhouette of light in which you are, where you’re here, not to experience the freezing cold and pulling in, going into lockdown, shut down from the North Pole. But where you’re there to emanate and as you emanate, you’re emanating, but as you’re emanating, you’re also in a state of receptivity, not pushing away.  You’re not there to prove, you’re there to enjoy, where you can actually see the snowflakes, where your body is not flipping out… The solar plexus as it was created, it goes underneath the rib cage, when the fight and flight response kicks in to protect all your vital organs. But where that’s no longer your master nor your go to, regardless of whatever’s going on outside. And what happens when this becomes now a place to where you’re able to feel you, not the experience of emotion, you know, that’s all based in this judgment… but it’s not just about judgments, it’s about how low can you go and how many ways, shapes and forms can you block yourself and allow yourself to be blocked. You know, when it’s not even about you. And yeah, there’s parts that is about you and your own personal, I’ll call it issues, or let’s just call it misperceptions because it’s just stuff you’ve misperceived and taken in to be true about yourself. Like you came home from school, your mom had a migraine, yelled at you, and you took in all this stuff, having no clue she had a migraine. You know, migraine. Your grain, our grain. HAHAH..And from there, you know, you took it, made it all this other stuff that it’s not. And so what is the divine feminine anyways, besides the next Barbie movie? hahah –Just like, what am I doing? Why again?

Alison:  You cracked me up, William.

William: It’s all having a blast, isn’t it?

Jean: It is. And, yeah… I feel like when I’m with you, William, all the layers of erroneous beliefs and concepts that I have packed on…umm…  you help melt away all the debris so that your true light can shine.

William: Absolutely… And the real you, minus all the emotional complications..

Alison: For me,  I feel a little bit like I’m standing under a very fun waterfall.

William: Oh, awesome, Awesome.

Alison: That’s how I feel when you’re talking. I feel like, Wow, Just let it, just be in this waterfall of William. You’re a very exciting person.

William: Oh, thank you, sweetheart. And both of you as well. And so ask yourself this question, I mean, everyone knows what you’ve experienced. You’ve experienced what you’ve experienced. You’ve gone here, you’ve gone there. And now from here, you know and you ask yourself, okay, from all of my experiences, from experiencing it–the pain, the torment, some things that were happy, then they were sad, and all these roller coasters. Now you know all that for yourself and thru yourself. Now you know of all the old, so you ask yourself, do I just want to maintain that comfort zone of –pain is bad, comfort is good, the point of life is to be undisturbed ,and just maintain that little tiny merry go round. Or, am I ready to start happening? Am I ready for to start living? Not surviving? Because all that other stuff is all been based in, he said, she said, we said, they said, and you know, all the survival mechanisms from your solar plexus down. What about your natural birthright? You know what it’s like to survive. What is it like to live?

Alison: And if I say yes, I am ready to live, William… What would my next step be?

William: Your next step would be from the rest of yourself, your higher levels and I say your higher levels, and I  want to be clear on that… Higher, does not mean out there on the other side of Uranus somewhere… Okay. More my anus either, you know. hahahaha

Alison: Thank goodness.

William: Yeah, I’m telling you, that’s some places men are not meant to go. haha..  So from here, it’s where you will start to go through and start to feel different changes within yourself. You’ll start to be presented within yourself– stuff, memories, thoughts, experiences coming up and leaving. There’s even times that you’ll have different sorts of dreams, but clarifying dreams, because what you’re doing, when I’m playing with your higher levels, it’s parts of you, still You,  I do not want to make a mistake about that, that are vibrating at a much higher vibrancy, but the body has been so sluggish and the intellect and then the emotional states have been so preoccupied with surviving, getting by making this work, that work or not work, and so preoccupied from the solar plexus down that, that you forgot about the rest of you… that was just mean, this isn’t, I have to get to a certain state to achieve and whatever… Every time you leave the planet, you’re giving your rungs of honor. You’re always celebrated… that’s always going to be. And now it’s about the fast track, accelerating and allowing for your true life to start happening, and for you to start happening. Not all of this wash, rinse, repeat and fears, phobias, anxieties, overwhelming burdens and holding your breath and waiting for the next cataclysm to occur.  Like you’re letting life happen to you rather than.

Alison: Rather than through you.

William: Yeah, and for you. Right. You know, when I say, all right, thy will, not my will to the rest of myself. What that really means is, you know what? I know what the mind’s bought into. And that’s not exactly working. Like, you know, the afternoon in Disneyland with the big giant rodent and all that. hahaha– So I’m thinking, okay, there’s got to be something better. Yeah. Something beyond what my mind can comprehend, because my mind can only base things on the future and the past, when it comes to the manifestational world. So it’s taking the past, projecting into the future and calling that normal. Now, what happens when you go beyond the mental emotional levels and you start welcoming in the rest of the whole universe your creator consciousness, now I want to know what I want… Show me, what’s not possible because, let’s get that out of our our vocabulary, but what’s probable and available?  Possible, it’s like, you know, let’s all go to the island, do some ayahuasca, cross our fingers, hope for the best. Right. Anyone can make it from the fire and not fall in , hahaha..

William: But from here, it’s where we go beyond all that into, Hey, show me what’s probable and available. I’m ready.

Jean: I love that. That just feels so… ready for life! Not hiding from life, not, you know, really stepping into your power and create creation. William, can you leave us with, like a prayer that or a statement that you say in the morning? Um, because you taught me this.

William: Yeah.

William: And I think our viewers would love to hear a surrender prayer, like bringing on your entourage and your higher Self. Yeah.

William: So, before I go to bed at night, I do make it a point to say, I bless this day and it is done. Because, absolutely break energy, so I’m not, my body’s not processing all night the prior day. And then, in the morning I start off with, all right family (divine family), all right entourage, you know, take command, I welcome you in Big guns to take command, speak through me, steer me and journey me, and fully incarnate within me. Now I Welcome in all the gifts the universe has to offer this day and bring it on, let’s go. And there’s times where, like before I’ll do an event, a one on one, and before I start work, I’ll go into saying the prayer of Francis, which is not about Catholicism. It was about his heart. Which goes, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace or higher levels, make me an instrument of your peace– where there is hatred only help me sow love. Where there is doubt, faith where there is darkness, light where there is despair, hope where there is injury, pardon. And where there is sadness, help me emanate joy. O Divine Master Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console. To be understood as to understand. To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that I receive, and it is in pardoning that I am pardoned, and it is in dying that I am born to eternal life. Now, if we pertain all of that to our self, the dying means  not the physical. It means the dying off of the ego. It’s a prayer of surrender, which is, it’s an invocation to the opening of your heart. So when I give my bride, my angel, a kiss in the morning, when I greet her…It’s not about well, let me tell you about my dreams. You know, it’s more about, you know, who we are. How are you? She feels that love. She knows she matters. She feels that acknowledgment. It’s not, you know, it’s not being common courtesy. It’s not fluffy. It’s not, I’m supposed to. It’s because, You really matter, And what you feel matters to me. What you share matters to me. When I get on the phone, you know ,to do my one on ones for the day, it’s that, Yeah you really matter, what you share, what you’re experiencing, what you have to say really matters. It’s not, okay I’m going through this and that and that and that.. You matter because you are creator expressing through carnate. What you’re running through, what you’re struggling with, what no matter if things are being stripped away because you’re going through a purification that matters, and where it is, you know, it’s kind of interesting because it’s like eventually, the crown chakra level vortex goes all the way down, marrying, dissolving all the other chakra level vortexes all the way through the heart, absorbs the heart and the heart, and all the lower chakra level vortexes get absorbed through the heart. And then what happens is that your crown goes all the way through the heart. The heart is right there, goes all the way down through the bottom of your feet. And right now, I would say it’s at the approximation of about 89ft in diameter because you are becoming the vortex of love that you are. It’s not about going to Sedona and wherever you go to a vortex, as you are that vortex that you’re seeking.  Is’nt that awesome? It’s so much fun.

Alison: It is.  But I have one last question. I want to know what brings you the most joy pie, cake or ice cream?

William: Definitely cake. Yeah.

Alison: All right.

William: Yellow cake, chocolate icing.

Alison: Oh, there you go.

Alison: Me too, man.

Alison: Me, too. William.

William: Thank you for not peeing in the waterfall..haha

Alison: No, no, no, not at all. I felt pretty good. I got it all going on.

Jean: William, you are the most brilliant vortex in my orbit, in my life. And I love you. And I love Mary. And thank you for all your goodness.

William: So you too both. And my angel sends love as well. And we sure love you both. This has been finally great to finally get to meet you.

Alison: Yes. And you are just the biggest pleasure. I would really thank you so much. I really feel so light and I’ve enjoyed it so much. Thank you so much, William.

William: Oh, and you too.

William: This has been an honor and look forward to doing it again some time and we’ll be here all week.

Alison: Okay, good. We’ll talk to you in a couple of days.  haha

William: Love you both.

William: Have fun. Bye. Love you. Oh, you know what?

William: I’ve been. I’ve been practicing my inside wink today.

Alison: Oh, let’s see. I’m feeling it.

William: I’m winking inside.

Alison: I feel it. It’s good.

William: I love you both. Have a lot. A lot of fun. Okay.

Alison: Bye. Thank you.

Jean: He has so much to offer. I could talk to him all afternoon.

Alison: He some of what he was saying was so thick to me, like there was so much going on with what he was saying. I liked the things about the the soul, sort of as a record keeper. I thought that was really beautiful. And I do have instances where I remember something so vividly. I do feel like it is happening right now, like and it brings emotion to me. Does it? Yeah. You know. Right. And go ahead.

Jean: No, no, I agree. I like the I liked how he shared what his practices are in the before he goes to bed. He says he breaks energy with the day.. You know, so he can really, so the soul the consciousness can really clear out and that you wake up like with a clearer clean slate. And and I also love that he says The prayer of Saint Francis, that’s one of my favorite as well. It’s beautiful. Yeah.

Alison: I think I need to break the day more, break the energy of the day.

Jean: I think a lot of us do because most of us have so much technical equipment around us. When we go to bed, we have our cell phones, we have our TV, we have our laptop. Right. And I think it’s really important that we kind of calm that stuff down and all the thoughts and…

Alison: Even just my own personal energy. Right, Right.

Jean: Like l everything that people that we’ve met. Another way of breaking energy, I was told, is, you know, to take a shower at night, get into water.

Alison: Then I want to wake up, though.

Jean: Do you? Yeah.

Alison: And the sad thing is, I sometimes listen or watch TV to fall asleep and I watch like, those reality shows. So it’s like, yeah, like I have a lot to break now. I have a lot to break.

Jean: Set yourself free.

Alison: That’s right. Break those chains. Well, I enjoyed him so much.

Jean: Yeah, he has. He has a great website. He has a wonderful class coming up starting in a few days. So treat yourself. It’s it’s his work is so unique and it’s life changing and very empowering because he guides you to live from your  true God Self.

Alison: I’m not going to even say anything else. No. Okay. You did. You killed it. Mic drop.

Jean: And scene.

Alison: That’s right.

Alison Martin: Wee wee! Okay, go ahead.Hi.

Jean Trebek: Hi. Here we are in our little studio.

Alison Martin: That’s right. Which is really just like a corner in my little back house.

Brad Koepenick: Well, today we have the amazing Brad Koepenick. That’s right.

Alison Martin: I’ve known Brad for a bunch of years. He’s a real force here in the San Fernando Valley of California. I met him because he was doing an animation camp years ago when I also knew his wife, Carol Koepenick. She was a wonderful teacher at the elementary school near me, Carpenter Elementary, and my kids went there and loved it. And Brad is like the Pied Piper. He can get anyone to sort of like jump on board, right? He’s infectious to be with in a in a very joyful way.

Jean Trebek: You cannot be sad if you’re in Brad’s company.

Alison Martin: That’s right. That’s exactly right.

Jean Trebek: And he has a whole wonderful new platform that brings together donors and influencers and charitable organizations. And it’s called Spark Rise. And it’s amazing. And that’s just coming out.

Alison Martin: And he helped start a Valley International Prep High School out in out in Chatsworth. Would that be Chatsworth, right? Where where the Hope of the Valley is?

Jean Trebek: Northridge.

Alison Martin: Northridge, right. Exactly. Sorry. Chatsworth was the old campus. And then he also works with Val Kilmer and does Cinema Twain. Mainly we talked with Brad about his heart…

Jean Trebek: Right. He shares a lot of just beautiful things that he is and that he has to embrace about himself.  And I love him.

Alison Martin: Me, too. He’s very sweet. So here he is, Brad Koepenick.

Brad Koepenick: All my beautiful friends.

Alison Martin: Hi, Brad.

Jean Trebek: I’ve got Brad on the brain because I’ve watched so many Brad things.

Brad Koepenick: Well, here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. I don’t care what we talk about. I really can’t even tell you the timing on this. The fact that you said today in particular is really weird. And by the way, do you believe in… I already know you do… synchronicity?

Alison Martin: Yes, of course.

Brad Koepenick: Love, magic, God, synchronicity, spirituality, cosmic leanings.

Alison Martin: Yes.

Brad Koepenick: Good. We have now won. We’ve won awards from four different chambers.

Alison Martin: Really?

Brad Koepenick: Yeah. Originally, the Steve Allen Award came from the United Chambers. That was for Ian – Spark Regional Award. We did a thing with West Valley Warner Center, but via Northridge Chamber, gave Michael the principal of the year and then a Chatsworth Porter Ranch gave Chuck the Unforgettable Educator Award this year.

Jean Trebek: Wow.

Brad Koepenick: So I’m a person who truly believes, and I really do, that my community is real. Yeah, I’m having a blast. I’m living my best life right now. I must have bumped into… And I’m not exaggerating 20 students last night and current students really… Because they sit in a canopy at the Northridge Mall but I’ll tell you one thing. It’s magical there.

Alison Martin: That’s amazing.

Brad Koepenick: That’s my life now.

Alison Martin: Now Spark Rise brings together donors, brands, influencers through social media.

Brad Koepenick: Spark Rise is a premier digital platform that – I call it Disneyland for activists. But we were a little ahead of the trend, and we have solutions for brands and nonprofit celebrities and activists, and we found ways to support them, that quite frankly, increase brands bottom lines. And so we’ve been doing it in various stages in various ways. We spoke in 30 states now and we spoke about Spark Rise at the United Nations. We spoke at Google headquarters. We did radio like Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. We talked about Spark Horizon Close. We were part of stories of social impact for Capital One cafe. So it’s something that’s been going on, but it’s go time! The pandemic proved an interesting opportunity, so I merged the companies with really significant brand, uh, brand ambassadors, philanthropists and a tech company out of Seattle. So I have an extraordinary team, great governance and structure. And as you know, Brad needs governance and structure.

Alison Martin: Well, we want to talk about all your projects, but we want to talk more about you and how you are. You said at one point you are the guy with the most energy in the room.

Brad Koepenick: Okay. So I make a joke and I say, I’m BrAD. Why do I say this? Because I was a literal poster child for AD at one point. They made a film called Autistic Kids With Cameras. It was about my work with students on the spectrum. This was in 2006. The last thing I wanted ever. That particular year, my mother was passing away and there were a lot of things going on and I was working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, teaching. The last thing I wanted was a camera following me. But I was with actors for autism. On Saturdays, I taught students on the spectrum animation, filmmaking, storytelling, theater, improvisation. These are the things that, as a young man, this is what saved my life. I’ve been thinking as of late, my parents had a place down on Balboa Peninsula. My dad was a working man. He worked up here at Rockwell Atomics International. I don’t think he never took a day off. But when my dad got home, he put on a tool belt. He had a beer, we had dinner, and then he would go to some property that his uncles helped him buy. But at one point it turned into he bought a duplex at Balboa Island. The only reason I’m at Balboa Peninsula. Why am I telling you this? I spent the bulk of my time alone making films. And I was, you know, nine, ten, eleven when my science teacher told me that we had were having a science fair in sixth grade, I simply wrote the song Pollution and had it in a film. You did not do that in those days. This was not part of the approved curriculum.I didn’t know any better.

Brad Koepenick: And I bring up Balboa because those were the days when I took my speedboat out and would just head out. Yeah. I had a Boston whaler and that meant I get to go out as far as I could till I scared myself and dream. And I saw whales and I saw crazy stuff. I got to live in that world where actually theatre and animation and filmmaking gave me a storytelling pathway that I use now. So. I don’t apologize for my energy because, quite frankly, it’s a superpower. Yeah. And it’s what saved me as a teacher because I didn’t care if you paced in the back of the room. I had a circle outside the door. If you needed to take a few seconds or a few minutes or even the hour to get yourself together. I’m extremely compassionate about all of us, if you if don’t mind me saying so, that are somewhere on the spectrum and it enabled my teaching. So this energy and it is a lot of energy – served me really well as a young actor. I found my way to Chatsworth High School where I met my very best of friends and they all went on to storied careers in the industry and I still work with all of them. I’ll tell you this.

Brad Koepenick: What I said for 30 years, teaching was the ability to create, nurture and maintain meaningful lifelong relationships. It’s the single skill that will propel you in the 21st century…And here’s what I love about that’s conflict resolution. That’s forgiveness. Those are listening skills. These are persuasive speaking techniques. That’s precision listening, active listening, listening for entertainment. I always said as an actor, you find the character in the other actor’s eyes. You find your character, that means you’re connecting. So my teaching led to a rather obscene amount of beautiful relationships. I was afforded the opportunity to not only teach one class in a school, I was at 150 schools, right? This is not an overexaggeration. I was just a guy at the Country School… Jean’s child was was there. She didn’t know me then, but I was right there. I remember standing next to you a thousand times, and the gentleman at this very progressive school allowed me to do what nobody was doing then, which was animation with young people. I, I, I lucked into animation early on. I found a camera when my son was going to be born and I ran over to Bullocks to buy a camera to film the birth. What do you know? There was a little button that said Anim. I was like, Does that mean animation? The guy goes, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I said, If that means that that camera takes a frame a second, you can push a button and it goes like that and if it’s got some options. He goes, Nobody’s ever asked this. I said, I’m asking. So sure enough, it had a quarter frame. Half frame, one second frame. I said, I’ll take five of them. Wow. My wife said, What are you doing? We can’t afford five cameras. And I said, This would be amazing. So I started an animation program at the Country School that grew into after-school programs that… name a private school because I was at every one of them in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, all the way through Calabasas and Agoura, all the way to Malibu. And then the thing just grew and grew and grew. We became Celluloid Heroes movie camp that’s named, of course, after my favorite band of all time. That’s The Kinks. Uh huh. I was obsessed with The Kinks, but it started as after-school programs, and it turned into camps. Once it turned into camps, we exploded. So my partners, John and Greg Kenseth, and I would do this in firehouses and temples, and we just did it wherever students wanted it, and we did it nonstop. So we would have 30, 40, 50 kids in a camp once a week, but then we’d be down in Newport, we’d be in Orange County, we’d be in LA, we’d be in Agoura, we’d be over at NoHo.

Brad Koepenick: My home was Lankershim and Magnolia over the what used to be Pitfire Pizza. Oh, yeah. And my buddy, who I had founded the Whitefire Theatre with, we were a founding theater company there and did some plays there that became movies. And it’s really fun because honestly and this is true, the movies and plays that we did, they sort of echoed Tennessee Williams, echoed Mark Twain and echoed Sam Shepard. And now I’ve literally made movies about Mark Twain. I’m making one about Tennessee Williams. And Sam Shepard is my favorite playwright. And so I’m living it all now. It’s manifested. It’s manifested because I’m the luckiest man in the world. I have 10,000 foot soldiers that are media literate. They’re creatives. They’re loving. They know all my faults. These are my students, right? And now they say, Hey, coach, I want to make a movie. Well, okay, I’m making one. This weekend, I started acting again after 25 years and I’m producing with my students. They’re tech geniuses. They’re innovators. And they invite me in. And I say, no, I don’t have time. I don’t have time because I was teaching. And now I’m like, Yes, that’s right. That’s right. The answer is yes. Right?

Alison Martin: Tell me tell me a little bit about your idea of forgiveness. So you said that forgiveness is an important human skill. Why?

Brad Koepenick: I loved when I taught because I taught communications and that gave me the opportunity to break a million rules. You know, you’ve got that personality. I’m, like, follow me. Let’s go. I was wild. But when it. I’m really working with underserved kids in a meaningful way. You’re talking about family situations. And when you’re in the trenches every day, that can overwhelm you. So, my students, I really devised our own curriculum. Based on creating a sacred space where we could communicate, including me… my most personal fears. Obstacles, maybe. Life story. And finding a way that was appropriate without doing that thing where you cross into psychology. I never did that. I had a psychologist the best in the world, by the way. I had her right here. So we had a safe, sacred space where we would discuss things openly. Tears flowed. It was incredible. And I watched students from incredibly difficult situations confront, express themselves and use that sacred space to come to a place of healing.

Brad Koepenick: Over the years, I learned to come to a place of healing because I’d done so many community circles with my students and so many activities and exercises where I can’t ask you to do something if I’m not going to model it, right? So, teaching media literacy led to conflict resolution that’s negotiate, compromise, compromise, avoid, delay. Surrender. Get help. That I would I would go through those. I’d say we’re going to have a big year this year. We’re going to learn a million things. But honestly, I want to speak to you about the fact that all I really care about, is that you understand that there’s help. If it’s not me, it’s someone in the lobby. If it’s not someone in the lobby, it’s a parent who’s standing over there. It’s not a parent, it’s over in that person’s office over there and there’s a therapist over there. But the ability to take care of yourself. Practice self care. And then eventually, which has changed my life, mindfulness and meditation on a daily basis. Um, will lead to having the kinds of skills, forgiveness that will provide you with a better life for yourself.

Alison Martin: That’s beautiful. I agree.

Jean Trebek: So, Brad, what do you think mindfulness is? What is it about mindfulness? Because you hear that a lot.

Brad Koepenick: Okay, so I’m running around. We called it the Willy Wonka tour. Alison was there. We’re in an old brick building. I have two months to open a school. So I’m giving the Willy Wonka tour. By the way, it was magical. And it was the Willy Wonka tour because I know how to build teams. And in that case, we had one of those extraordinarily cool teams where it was like, I believed every word I was saying. I’ve never actually had to sell anything I don’t believe in. But in this case, it was like, we’re going to be speech and debate champions. Why? We had the national speech and debate champion- the best teacher in the in the country. Oh, by the way, every kid’s going to go to college of their choice. Why? Anne’s the best at what she does. She’s a partner and she will get you into the college of your choice. That is what she does. Oh, don’t talk to me about our parent body. I happen to have one of the strongest leaders I’ve met in 30 years, and she doesn’t even know I know her. My wife dealt with her. So that’s Alison. But my point was, I’m running around giving this tour, and at the very, very end, I would say… This is a school of mindfulness and meditation, and the parents would look at me. I was a little bit talking out of my- You know what? Because, yes, I knew of the David Lynch Foundation they provide in public schools around the country. And my friends were with the David Lynch Foundation. Yes, I knew of the Mindup Foundation because Goldie Hawn is awesome. And she gave Mind Up to my teachers. So I knew we had people that were going to bring us meditation and mindfulness and they knew what they were doing, so we did it. But the real beauty was one night when a couple moved in. I’d wanted to bring some people in from up north, from Silicon Valley, San Francisco, etcetera. This couple walks in and I gave them a Willy Wonka tour and he says, Shut the door. And he says, You need to know based on what you just did, I’m going to sell my home and move to Los Angeles with my two daughters. By the way, we teach mindfulness and meditation around the world. And I said Thursday night, 7 p.m., four nights later, I walked into the space. A man with AD who had to lie his whole life right during theater exercise.

Jean Trebek: And how was it?

Brad Koepenick: Oh, it was great. I’m relaxed. No, no, no. He whispered something in my ear that night. A mantra. And it changed my entire life. Wow. And he and his beautiful wife not only left their daughters in our school, by the way, they’re incredibly special. And they just graduated university and are doing social impact work and business at a level that I’ll never understand. But he came in with the students for four years, and we had a mindfulness and meditation class that was not a joke. So the woman that we had teaching Natalie was just really, really good at it. I took my first sound bath in that class and now I go to the creative visions in Malibu and do it over the beach. So I learned my meditation practice. With my students and in some cases, some of my students even taught me to go deeper and deeper and deeper. And that’s real. It changed my life. And everywhere you look around the globe and I know you know this because you interviewed global leaders and thought leaders, it is the conversation we’re way past. Is it good for you? Do you need it? It is the conversation in leadership and especially in the tech world and startup world.

Alison Martin: Brad, what’s the first thing you do in the morning?

Brad Koepenick: Meditate. I have a practice where I, uh. Well, I’ll just…I’ll get specific. But I’ll tell you this. There are certain things I say out loud. I’m a gratitude list guy. I’m a big gratitude list. I say mine out loud because I’m a kinesthetic learner. So I like to move and I like to do things. So I sometimes, as I’m driving in the morning, scream mine out. I’m grateful for Jean. I’m grateful for Alison, I’m grateful for Val. I’m grateful. And I just go down my investors, my advisors, my best friend, of course, my wife is at the top, right? My wife’s at the top. Um, uh, 40, 40 years together. Um, and she learned to meditate. It’s been really important, especially during those extremely trying times. The last several years, my morning practice is a practice of writing. I write. I speak my gratitude list. I attend programs, seminars, and other such things that promote wellness. And it’s funny. I used to ramp up. I’d listen to Radiohead Muse I’m a rock n roll guy, but put it on loud. Get to work so that everyone can follow you to the next blah blah. Nuh-uh. 8 a.m.. Get in the car and I wind DOWN. Yeah. And get to a place of quiet head. Quiet mind. And usually it’s going to be Stevie Wonder, right? Little Cat Stevens thrown in with some few musical theater songs and been big on Godspell lately. And I wind down. So my morning used to start ramping up. Not a healthy way to live. Now it starts all the way winding down so that I can be as loving and kind and shut the you know what up for the day, right? So thoughtful, honest, intelligent, necessary, kind to think methodology. Do I need to say this? Does it need to be said by me? Does it need to be said now? When I’m in, when I’m dealing with someone in business now, I really do pause. I didn’t understand pause until I learned to meditate. And now it becomes a daily strategy for every single conversation that I have.

Alison Martin: Oh, that’s… it’s great.

Jean Trebek: It is great. And you’re so right. Brad, about meditation. It’s not whether it’s good or bad for you. We know science knows that it is important. And I know myself when I do take time to sit with myself, you know, meditation gets all these weird connotations and the idea of “no thought” – And that’s not it. But when it’s like plugging into something deeper, more than just those quick shooting star thoughts. You know, it just grounds you. With a lot of beautiful energy that you have, so am I hearing you that that meditation helps ground you?

Brad Koepenick: I would say it’s the number one practice in my life right now that has led to transformational change in my family, myself, my professional career and my life. And like you said, when I now get to connect with young people who we’ve been through this together and we all have a shared language about something like meditation, it leads to really meaningful and deep and profound productive experiences and projects that I don’t think would have otherwise come from somewhere else. And those now take the form of films  and sometimes short films and TV shows and tech companies and processes that I just don’t think would have come from anywhere else. I was lucky enough. I’ve been writing lately.

Brad Koepenick: In 2004 and I got to teach with some pretty profound people like Mikhail Baryshnikov and Edward Albee. But the man that was there that transformed my life was Paul Sills and Paul, his mother was Viola Spolin, and Viola Spolin brought theater games to communities. Then eventually those theater games became improvisation. She wrote improvisation for the theater. Her son Paul took those same theatre games in the 60s. He applied them to professional actors and he started Second City. Paul is one of the more profound directors in American theater, where he was very much a mentor to me in his life.

Brad Koepenick: I got to do story theater with him and what do you know? I’m there teaching this thing for kids, but Paul is right there, so I’m in his workshop and I bring it up because, well, one, you’d be playing a game. You know? We’ve all done theater games in theater class, whatever, our whole lives. But with Paul, he would just play the game. Right? Right. Just play the game. And I’m like, What? So, I got led into Spolin. Next thing I know, I’m working with my idols. Only people I’ve read about in books were once a week without talking about anything else – we simply did Spolin games. Viola Spolin called that process meditation in motion. Wow. And one time I got to go to Paul’s barn with 30 teachers from around the world science, math, English of all grade levels. And all we did in a magical barn in a blue circle was take our shoes off in the morning, say not it, not it, not it, and play games. And then at the end of the day, we would reflect on where they fit into our curriculums and how we might use these games in this process.

Brad Koepenick: And I only bring that up because that was the closest I’d ever come to true meditation. I didn’t realize it, but in the process of one of those games one time we played this game called Transformation and I literally opened my eyes at the end and people were staring at me. I was lost. I was somewhere else. I was in a pure state of bliss and joy and play. I only bring that up because I’m not so sure that if that didn’t save my life through certain years because I was doing the grind thing, I was doing the whole thing, the whole unhealthy thing. And then, when I found meditation, I start to reflect on, Wow, really? The universe has been throwing this at you in various ways and you just weren’t listening, right? So now I listen to that still voice. I try to build upon it. I try to surround myself with people, which is why you’re so important to me. You’re so important to me because, when you bump into people in life, when they’re dropped into your life and you didn’t take the time to see them. It can be. Well, let’s go in the other direction when you do, take the time to see them…When you are still enough to be opposite somebody and they take the time to see you. It can be positively and utterly a game changer. Yeah. And you two are that for me. And when you invited me to write for you, it was an opportunity for me because I’m already amassing these people around the world for Spark Rise. But it was like, This is incredible. It’s like you two sort of just got me and I was just able to go to meet so-and-so and you’re like, Yeah. And it was really joyous. It was nothing but positivity, nothing but beautiful people in the same space. And at our first high school graduation, I did give a speech on taking the time to see each other, and I gave that speech because I’ve noticed so much in my life that people don’t take the time to see each other. I wrote a curriculum on Crash when the film came out, but I do believe that we crash into each other so that we can feel something. I do believe that if you take the time every day that the miracles flow, they’re everywhere. And yet I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed somebody right here in front of somebody and it’s like, wow, they didn’t even see, you know?

Alison Martin: Yes.

Brad Koepenick: We lost a beautiful man who took over from my communications class at a school this year, but he was simply flowing through as a substitute at the time. And I was running around and ,as soon as I walked by him, I felt his energy and I stopped and I said, Can I talk to you for a second? Who are you? And he said, Why do you ask? And I said, Who are you? And he told me and I was looking for somebody to be my replacement. For my communications teaching, which, by the way, that’s all I knew, right? Well, he tells me my name is so-and-so and I was the director of communications and marketing for Universal for 20 something years. And he lists out this ridiculous resume. And I said, What do you want? And he said, Well, I’d love to teach because you love teaching, don’t you? And I said, By the way, where have you taught? And he said, USC. Wow. And I said, Would you like to start teaching here next week? And he said, yes. And that’s the kind of “Right”.There are these right in our midst every single day. They’re the most beautiful human beings. And just like things going on and we blow right past and don’t want to blow right past anymore.

Jean Trebek: I love that you say that, Brad. I’ve read so many books of, I guess the afterlife or what happens metaphysically, and the one question so beyond there being no judgment when you look back. But the question apparently that this one person said that was asked when they had a near-death experience was – how present were you to your own life? And I remember reading that and it took my breath away. And I remember going on a five day silent meditation retreat. And at first it was awful. It was so-

Brad Koepenick: Very hard.

Jean Trebek: You could not read. You really had to be with your own – with yourself. And I remember thinking to myself -this is the first time that I’ve really tasted oatmeal because in the morning, you know, you’re so quick. You stand in front of the refrigerator, you’re multitasking. And I just thought, you know, slowing down is a beautiful thing. And it’s hard when, like you said, I have a lot of energy. And I was always told as a little girl, can you please come and sit? Can you please go sit? Go watch TV. Go. You know, calm down. Calm down. And, um. And it’s a beautiful thing when you take take the time to be present.

Alison Martin: And see someone.

Jean Trebek: And see someone.

Brad Koepenick: I was an actor in my 20s and 30s, like I said, and actually worked, which was odd, but I never enjoyed it. I was never present for myself. I never truly locked in, but I worked. It was my whole thing. I wasn’t there. I believe a Strasberg said at one point there is no acting until 50. I’ll take it I’m 62, but I’ll take it. And say that because I mentored young actors and professionals my whole life. But now I can be present and model that for them and say, you know, you might want to consider because what I’ve found now in meditation is just an enormous amount of joy in being still on stage, an enormous amount of joy. I was in high school and I was very, very, very adept at physical comedy because my body flew in different directions and I was doing a play called Scapino. And this is a play where you literally – you swing from ropes. I would have doctors come up to me afterwards. And they were right, by the way. They would say, I need to speak with you. Meaning? Are you okay? Yeah. And I don’t think you are. And they were right. And. It’s really fun when you start to get into, wow, I can only take care of me, right? I have the option now of whether I want to be slow or tap into that energy.

Brad Koepenick: Because that energy is not bad. I want to get away from that whole methodology where you’re saying to everyone, you’ve got to slow down all the way. Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater for a second here. It’s my superpower. I love people. I stand in a canopy on Wednesday nights in a crowded community space because I love community. I’m an extrovert. This is okay. You know this is okay. So go find yourself an introvert to be your partner. Go find. Go find the dot, the cross, the people to take care of the stuff that you’re not getting handled and you be you. Right. And that’s why it took me a long time – 62. This company (Spark Rise) is not a company. It’s a movement. And it embodies literally everything about things that I love. A little entertainment, a little bit of media, philanthropy, technology, nonprofit. It’s just a lot of fun. And now I get to be me. I don’t have to apologize for being me. Right.

Alison Martin: I said to Jean, the thing about Brad is when you leave him, you feel like you can do anything. And so what would you say to someone who might feel stuck or in a job that they don’t love or retired and not sure what to do? How do they regain that inspiration or passion?

Brad Koepenick: I found music again. I had simply hung it up. I didn’t touch the piano. And then, what do you know? We start that high school and this is a true story. Student named Noah. You know him? He comes up to me one day. We’re a few weeks into school and he goes, Brad, will you play a song with me Friday night? And I’m like, running around. I’m like, What? What? What song? And he goes, Sunday afternoon by The Kinks. I had to stop for a second. It just happened to be a song that I played with my old band in my 20s. And again, those young people, just by watching them find music for the first time and do it. I completely am reconnected with music theatre. I never was a visual artist and my wife just gave me an art lesson and you know, I painted. So I worked in an art gallery. Val Kilmer and I built an art gallery – Helmel – and it was for Val’s art. And that’s where I’ve been housed. But then what do you know? That high school moved over and they built a building and there’s a big two story house and they street art painted it.

Brad Koepenick: It’s psychedelic. And I was like, This is my new home. I can be present on that second floor twice a week for a couple hours and be of service to this entity. But I’m telling you that because that whole excitement about finding visual art for the first time, finding poetry for the first time, finding writing again, I’m a writer. I never said that for 45 years. And I’m a writer. I write screenplays and I write plays and I write children’s plays and I write songs and I write articles. But I never said it out loud. So am I good. Who cares? Don’t care. Is it fun? I never knew that I was going to be able to have this whole authentic presence. It came from watching younger people find their skills for the first time and then just transmitting it back. So my suggestion is we only got today. What are we talking about? What do you want? You want to start a company? Go give it a shot. What’s the first thing that happens? Nothing. I mean, you know. Oh, no, your painting’s not good. Are you kidding? You know, that’s that song. What? What? Who cares, right?

Alison Martin: It’s the idea of play.

Brad Koepenick: And so I’ve spent the last six years with my soul brother, Val Kilmer. But Val, here’s what happened. We reconnect. He’s doing Mark Twain. He invites my high school students a decade ago to shoot him. Who does that, by the way? Nobody does that. My 15 year old filmmakers went down there. They weren’t even in a film academy, and they filmed him while one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, while he got to find Mark Twain. I bring this up for a reason. I walked in the night to his first workshop performance, thinking this is going to be a nightmare. What am I going to say to Val Kilmer? Oh, that was really good. You know, what are you going to say? It’s going to be a twain wreck, as he says, within two minutes of him- he was fully at play! He’d never been funnier. And Val Kilmer is the funniest man I’ve ever met. Yeah. And I bring it up because it reinvigorated. We were just talking about Paul Sills and playing Viola Spolin. But this is an actor who people wrote off. At the top of his game. Because why? He’s fully at play. He’s embracing. He’s embracing. The physical comic, the humorist. And the very best of his talents. Right. And he’s doing it in the last stage of his career he had at that moment, I turned to him and I said, I’m going to spend the rest of my life putting this performance in front of as many students that I can all over the world. The end. And my beauty of my time with Val, because we were pretty much 14 hours a day, seven days a week, we traveled the country because of his condition. And I think most people know. But he had throat cancer several years ago, but the ramifications left him with… so I was his voice with him. And we get each other, let’s just say that. And I only bring this up because we would drive through San Antonio and I’d go for hours without talking.

Brad Koepenick: But he he calls it prayer because that’s his practice, right? I call it prayer meditation. Silence. But being silent together for so long over such a prolonged amount of time in such a meaningful activity as bringing Mark Twain to different cities and then blow out and visit a high school. Or we’d visit a college. It taught me a different way to move. So I credit. Credit, Val. Val, someone who I met at age 14 who was this big. This big. And he’s still that big to me. I credit him for bringing creativity and a little bit of self esteem… and he brought it back for me. I’m an actor and a writer and a producer again, because I got to spend time with somebody who just doesn’t question that.

Alison Martin: Right.

Brad Koepenick: He just goes for it. For better or worse, whether he loses everything or not, he’s going to go all the way to the sun. And that’s something that’s very meaningful and profound to be around because the two of us – we completed a whole together. Yeah. So my answer to you about somebody who should do this. Should I do that? Hey, guess what I just learned from this guy who is going through some pretty hard stuff. He rolls big, he rolls hard. And what I learned is it’s a lot of fun. So what do you care? Go for it. Go for it. Just say yes. I’m a “yes and” guy.

Alison Martin: Yes and – that’s right.

Jean Trebek: The power of yes and.

Brad Koepenick: But I also because I’ve been thinking a lot about it, I’ve been thinking like, you know, you get in this sort of world of leadership and blah, blah, blah. Yes. And but “no” is a complete answer.

Alison Martin: That’s right.

Jean Trebek: That’s true as well. Yes.

Brad Koepenick: And so drawing boundaries and things like that to part of, again, communications class. And these are things that I’m now learning for real as a man in 62, you know, all skills that, of course, you roll right into your professional life.

Alison Martin: Right. Brad, before we wrap up, I just want to ask, what would you like to tell a listener that’s important to you right now? Is it Spark Rise? Is it Cinema Twain?  What would you like us to leave with?

Brad Koepenick: In a couple months – There’s a premier digital platform that’s actually been years in the making. There’s a placeholder right there and it’s a place for you to be able to help. And you don’t have to give money and you don’t take your credit card out. You simply take an action and you get part of the thing. You get to be part of the things you care about with. By the way, the people that you love, those are your your favorite artists and your favorite filmmakers and comedians and musicians. And what do you know? You’re all taking this action, but you’re raising tons of money for the things that you love most theatre, arts, education and the environment and mental health and vets. And we can all do it together now because guess what? That’s where everything’s going. Yeah, it’s been going that way for a while. So I say, let’s do it. So go to Sparkrise.com in a couple of months. Don’t go there now it’s a placeholder site.

Brad Koepenick: And let me just say one thing about Cinema Twain – we built Val Metaverse. I still laugh, but we did it. Um, it’s called Camp Kilmer. Camp Kilmer. If you have a chance to see Val Kilmer’s performance as Mark Twain, if you like the Val documentary on Amazon Prime, if you like that little sliver in Top Gun 2. And man did I learn a lot on that one. Um, if you like that sliver, you must see this performance because it’s very rare in life that you’re treated to a performance … and it is Mark Twain, after all… where somebody so fully and joyously inhabits someone else and does such in a way that the questions. You’re left with a hundred questions. So try to check Cinema Twain out. Right now it only lives in Camp Kilmer, and it’s not even there yet. Okay. I’d still like to screen it for you, though, so come over to my house.

Alison Martin: I would love that. Yeah, we would love that. You’re just such an amazing person to me, Brad. And I love you to bits. Maybe when Spark Rise is out, we can do this again.

Brad Koepenick: Well, you two mean the world to me. I don’t know again why we come into each other’s lives like this. But you. We did something profound, and I’m real proud of that. But it’s it’s even more fun now to grow together.

Jean Trebek: Yeah, it is.

Alison Martin: Yes.

Brad Koepenick: We’re all in different places together, and it’s really fun to go, okay, what are we going to do next?

Alison Martin: Right.

Brad Koepenick: That’s right. And so I’m real grateful that you had me here today. Thank you.

Alison Martin: Have a great day. We’ll be thinking. We’ll be thinking about you all day. Sending you good Mojo!

Jean Trebek: Shine on.

Alison Martin: Love you, Brad. Say hi to Carol. Bye. See you later. Bye bye.

Alison Martin: He’s so great, isn’t he?

Jean Trebek: Love, Brad. Yes. Yeah.

Alison Martin: And I love that he, first of all, has done so many things in his life. When you read about Brad and you hear his other interviews and I love that this time he just really focused on what his soul is telling him and just about people being seen and heard and about being vulnerable.

Jean Trebek: He’s very deep and I think he has so much wisdom. I really enjoyed how he shared that he feels that his high energy is his superpower and that by, you know, he’s learned to meditate to kind of take all of that energy and and just solidify it and then it works for him rather than against him.

Alison Martin: And I love that he’s so inspired by kids. He is such an advocate for children and teens and young people. He really he goes out of his way to involve them and influence them in a really positive way.

Jean Trebek: Yeah, he’s a mensch.

Alison Martin: He’s a mensch. He’s a mensch-y guy.

Jean Trebek: He is.

Alison Martin: So, Brad, go Brad, go! Thank you for listening. And if you see something for Spark Rise, please go to it. Spark Rise is really amazing. Look it up. Google it because it’s it’s going to be great.

Jean Trebek: It is. It’s going to help any charity organization. That’s right. Just expand their donorship.

Alison Martin: Exactly. All right. Hey, bye. We’ll see you next time. Bye bye.

Alison : I have no memory anymore. Right now, I don’t know whether my head is jammed with files. Are you, Jean? I think you look like Jean. I don’t remember anything. Okay. I do know that we’re going to do an interview, right?

Jean: Yes. This is with Angela Montano. And I actually reached out to her because, I saw something in my inbox and it was all about prayer. And as a spiritual practitioner, that really piqued my interest. So I opened it up and I saw that this woman, Angela, offers an hour of prayer on the air with Angela Montano, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. She uses the power of prayer to help shift consciousness. People just sign up and you can type in or speak to her directly and tell her what your challenge is and she prays for you. Her prayers are not the typical type of prayer, which most of us think. Well, I’ll speak for myself, that I grew up in thinking prayer was more like a beseeching request, but this is a like a quantum, very expansive prayer. And it’s beautiful.  What do you think?

Alison : Well, I felt like for me, prayer has changed so much, like when, you know, raised by Catholicism and having going to church and a Catholic school. It felt like it was like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, more like something outside of myself could help me. And then we learned, when I was at the church with you, Jean, a more positive, reaffirming type of prayer. And what I love about Angela is she’s accepting of it all. She accepts all prayer as a way of helping yourself, helping others and connecting with our True Consciousness or True Being, right?

Jean: Angela has a beautiful website and she talks about “rethink prayer.” So many of us, including myself have been schooled in in affirmative prayer, and I forget that when I’m in a challenging situation, I can stop and pray. And whether it’s just, oh, help me God or Universe… please figure this out for me, whatever that is. You know, it’s really tapping into a power that is greater than ourselves, beyond the little thinking mind that is constantly analyzing and trying to figure it out on its own will.

Alison : And what I love too is Angela’s voice. She’s like –  okay, so just sit back, listen, and really like, just let it wash over you –  because She’s amazing.

Jean: She is such a delight.

Alison : It is such a treat because I want to just say that I think that what you Angela, bring to the table is a renewed passion and a new awareness around prayer.

Angela: Thank you.

Jean: I love that. And, just a little side note, I went to North Hollywood Church of Religious Science, and I’ve taken a few classes, also at the Agape Church with Dr. Michael Beckwith. So I know that’s where you studied, yes?

Angela: Yes, that’s right.

Alison : That’s beautiful.. And you’re a practitioner?

Angela: I am a practitioner,licensed through Agape, licensed through the Centers of Spiritual Living. But really what I do with prayer for me has gone beyond the affirmative prayer method, which is beautiful and wonderful and a revelation. And I’m so grateful I was trained in it. And there’s just so many portals to enter into prayer.  I’m just so grateful to be available to prayer and entering into it in so many ways. Like, if you’re terribly depressed, to pray affirmatively is very, very hard. There has to be another way.

Alison : Could you explain that a little bit more? So you said you go beyond affirmative prayer, right? So for the listeners, can you just give a little snippet of what affirmative prayer is and then how you’ve moved sort of beyond that?

Angela: Right. Okay.

Jean: And one little thing, start with a prayer of supplication then a prayer of affirmation.

Angela: I’m going to start with affirmative prayer. Then speak to what you’re saying, Jean, and then go on to the beyond. So what’s amazing and revelation like a revelation about affirmative prayer for those who’ve studied it and know it, it’s got a technique to it. So many people I work with who have even grown up in religion so often I hear no one really ever taught me how to pray. You know, it’s like, bow your head and guess we’re doing it, you know, and we don’t really know what we’re doing. And so one of my big things I really want people to know is prayer has existed for centuries before the first religion was ever formed. So a lot of times we think like, Prayer is a product of religion. You know, prayer comes out of religion. That’s not true. And I’m not against any religion at all. And in truth, religion has contributed greatly to prayer. And yet prayer is this instinct to reach beyond whatever current mindset you’re in, out of which suffering is occurring. And I really do believe that is an instinct. Like we have the instinct to breathe, the instinct to eat, the instinct to sleep. Prayer is a spiritual instinct that I think we’ve lost contact with in a in a felt sense. And so I hope in my work with Rethink Prayer, I’m helping people rethink prayer to then enter into some kind of intimate, authentic experience of that reaching beyond. And even when I say reaching beyond, it sounds like I’m meaning like reaching beyond out there.

Angela: Where is God out there? I don’t mean that, I mean the Beyond…that is… I don’t know what kind of direction to tell you? I could say the beyond that is within? But within where? Do I mean behind my belly button, in my spine, like where is the within? So within our consciousness,you know, a metaphysical perspective is where we are a consciousness appearing as a body, like our body is within our consciousness. You know, that’s really extraordinary to think that. So when we talk about reaching beyond, I just mean beyond the limited way I’m thinking about something that is making me think there’s no way out, something will never get better from here, right? So what’s so beautiful about affirmative prayer is it solves a problem for a lot of people where they don’t feel connected to any kind of higher power, whether we call that higher power the existence of a kind of divine grace, whether we call that higher power God, spirit, love, beauty. How do I connect to it? So in affirmative prayer, there’s actually a technique. When I learned it, there were five steps. Now they actually have a six steps. But how I learned it is you just begin with God is. So God is, means Love is. Peace is and joy is. So you would use these verities of God. We would think of the qualities of God being love, peace, joy, forgiveness, compassion, prosperity and plentitude.

Angela: And so you just begin, no matter what with, God is these qualities of God, these qualities of Love exist. And then you do something that’s very radical in step two, which is I am one with this Presence of God. So I may not feel joyful at all. So I’m saying joy is and I am the Presence of joy. So I don’t have any contact maybe in this moment with joy, but I’m declaring it in prayer. And then step three is realization, where you realize not only is God, God is and I am one with this Presence, number three is whatever is concerning me… whatever it is, it can’t pay my rent, boyfriend broke up with me, I don’t know where my child is, we’ve gotten a really frightening diagnosis in my family that you then realize this presence is in the midst of whatever concerns you. At the center and circumference of this thing, that’s scaring you. So you bring your awareness to infinite possibility related to something that maybe has you quaking in fear. And then from there you say thank you. You release the prayer and you let go. So what’s so amazing about affirmative prayer and just catch that word affirmative. I am affirming that I am one with this greater, higher power than I am currently aware of. And I’ve seen amazing things happen for people through affirmative prayer. Now, prayer of supplication, I love that prayer too. When I originally learned, affirmative prayer, affirmative prayer was considered to be like for more conscious people, you know, like we’ve evolved beyond needing help, you know, because we know God isn’t outside of us.

Angela: We’re one with God. So, you know, we’re not begging and beseeching. That’s praying amiss. But I don’t believe that. I actually believe help is a beautiful prayer. And I believe it’s a prayer of high self esteem, because if anybody can just say help, they’re declaring they’re worthy of help. And even Michael Beckwith, who you mentioned, Jean, he told a story once about he was, I think in Costa Rica, he was swimming and he got pulled out by a tidal wave, like no, I don’t know, by a riptide, you know, And he was trying to swim back, He was getting super tired and he was really beginning to doubt he was going to make it back, And he even began to think. I didn’t think I would go this way, but this could really be it for me. And he said spontaneously, with no thought, something deep, deep, deep down within him moved through him, and it was just the word, “help.” And he said right after that, this huge wave came and pushed him into the shore. So, I mean, I love help. It’s one of my favorite prayers. And I probably do it every day. You know, I think of we need a toolbox of prayer perspectives and modalities. Because there’s just not one way to pray. Just like you don’t get dressed in the exact same thing every single day. I practically do. But I mean, normally you know, you might, you know, different seasons, different clothes. It’s kind of different seasons, different portals into I like to call it the prayer field. I didn’t coin that term, I heard that from Reverend Coco Stewart, who is also of Agape. And I was part of the pastoral care ministry there for about ten years. And it’s just like delivering things to the prayer field. It’s like delivering. Where we would be very constricted in our perspective to a possibility greater than we can imagine. You know, Emily Dickinson says dwell in possibility. I think that’s another great word for higher powers is just possibility.

Alison : And when you say your prayer has moved beyond that, could you give us an idea of what that might look like?

Angela: And maybe I’m not being perfectly accurate in saying beyond, it includes that and more. So when when I think of other ways that I pray, that I think is very good…. I did create a kind of prayer method called the vulnerability prayer. And it just starts with like, you know, I need and everything I think I need, I want everything I think I want. And then I offer all these needs and wants to the deep reality of peace that we all are and let go. And I feel very cleansed by that prayer. I mean, vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. And sometimes I’ve taught affirmative prayer for decades, and a lot of times students like, am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? It’s almost like you’ve got to be so convicted and declaring God is, I am and right in the midst of this, God is. And sometimes, you know, it’s like, well, I can’t be vulnerable. And so I love the vulnerability prayer. Um popular, oh I don’t know how many years ago, maybe 7 or 8 years ago it became I think pretty well known, his Hawaiian method of prayer – Ho’oponopono,  Are you aware of that one?

Alison : Yes. Yes.

Angela: So that is an interesting method of prayer. And I’ve seen many people, you know, do different versions of that. I don’t know if you would like me to speak about that.

Alison : Sure.

Jean: Yeah.

Angela: Well, Ho’oponopono is this prayer that the story goes… That this man worked in a psychiatric ward where there were psychiatric patients who were criminals and they were imprisoned and instead of meeting with them, he sat with their files, and he did a prayer where he said, “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, and I love you.” And so, when he’s saying I’m sorry, that’s a deep, mystical perspective on prayer. He’s saying, I’m sorry that whatever happened to you has happened to you. He’s taking even responsibility for what happened to them. Like somehow on my watch, this is happening. He’s saying I’m sorry for my perspective of you and society’s perspective of you. We’ve perceived you as other, as bad, as criminal. So it’s a deep Compassion in I’m sorry. And then the please forgive me, it’s offering all that one must go through in being so utterly misunderstood to end up with a mental illness and a record, you know, like like how many moments were missed for that person? So it’s like, please forgive me. Please forgive our world. You know, please forgive everyone…When I’m saying please forgive me, please forgive every teacher, every parent, you know, every one that may have held you that that didn’t… So I’m sorry. Please forgive me. And then thank you. Is the assumption that the gratitude is filling the space. And then I love you is the healing infusion of love. And as the story goes, there was that ward people got well and moved on to better situations in their life.

Alison : That’s gives me chills.

Angela: Yeah, I actually do that one practically every night. And what I often say I’m sorry to, at this point in my life, is just I say I’m sorry to the day, because I know every day is utterly miraculous. Like I bit into a blue actually a BlackBerry earlier. And it’s like, how do I describe that alone was amazing. And yet, how many moments do I miss? You know, when am I critical and damning something rather than blessing it? You know, when am I not seeing what’s really being offered to me in the day? How much love and joy and peace and prosperity am I missing? Because I’m caught in a loop in the divided mind where I’m going to name this good, this bad.  You know, the outside of my house needs to be repainted right now. So now that’s bad, you know? And then, you know, I’ll go in and what else needs to be improved? Or so I, of course, do my best to live in praise and I fail every day. So I love that prayer because I like to ask the day for forgiveness, like all the things I missed. I don’t know. It cleanses me.

Alison : I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

Angela: I told my girlfriend I did that. She goes, Oh, Angela, I think you’re like a martyr. But I don’t feel that way about it. I feel, you know.

Jean: It suits you and thank you for sharing that, because those of us that are on a, I mean we’re all on a spiritual path, but those of us that it looks more obvious, Um you know, when we say we’re sorry and we’re consciously really choosing our words in that moment, it doesn’t mean… We know our intention behind saying it.  I love what you said, Angela about the moments we miss, because if we can really hold on to the perception that everything is a miracle…who is it? Albert Einstein that said everything’s a miracle or not?

Angela:  I don’t know who said that. I think he might. I don’t know. I want to say Walt Whitman. Everything is a miracle or nothing is.

Jean: But it wasn’t me…haha

Angela: Do not quote me. Do not quote me.

Jean: The other thing I wanted to bring up and thank you, you’ve already given our listeners so much beauty from what you just said, on your Monday Rethink Prayer, I love when you say, “I am more interested in love.” You know, you say that sometimes to whomever you’re holding space for and praying. Can you just talk about that? Like how or what advice or what tips can you help all of us that are listening to you be more interested in love? Because that is so healing.

Angela: You know being interested in love, Is being interested in ourselves. It’s being interested in our own true nature. And there is love and there’s the experience of fear. And in a way, every moment is a choice between love or fear. The Course in Miracles teaches us love or judgment, but judgment and fear are you simultaneously in that or use synonymous synonymously in that text.  And so fear, if we think of it as an acronym- false evidence appearing real. So. I don’t know why I mentioned the thing about, you know, and I know it’s a very superficial could not be more superficial example, but my house needs to be painted on the outside, right? So I look at it and there’s a place where the paint is chipping. And when I’m critical of it, it’s because with that chip, I’m moving into fear. So anytime we’re feeling we need to rank, we’re in fear. Any time we think we, you know, any kind of survival mentality is fear based. You know, we’ve got to get higher, we’ve got to get better. Even self esteem is like, we’ve got to get high self esteem. And how do we get high self esteem? Well, I’ll compare myself to other people. I think I’m doing better than them. I’m not doing as well as those like we’re trying to rank ourselves. That is fear and it grips most of us. I think unless we’re completely in a communion with our own true nature, most of us are susceptible to this feeling of less than, you know, worried about our survival.

Angela: How are we measuring up? So when I say I’m more interested in love, I really am more interested in love. But for me, I have to turn back to love because fear grabs me right? The minute I’m critical of a house that’s keeping me warm, keeping me safe… I mean, who cares that the paint is chipping, You know? I will get it painted at some point or something else done. But I, In my deepest authenticity, I really love my house and I’m more interested in loving it, in praising it, in appreciating it and being grateful for it than in being critical. So when I say on my podcast Prayer on the Air, I’m more interested in love, I’m saying that to myself and all of us like, can we together as a prayer collective be more interested in love? Now what’s so interesting to me is loving feels so much more natural. Fearing does not feel natural. It feels like something’s off. You know, it feels like a pretty, you know, common habit. I’m used to this, but it doesn’t feel natural. I sometimes say it’s like kind of like wearing shoes that are too small and you’re like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, But you keep wearing them.  You stand in love..you ground in love. And it’s like, oh, these are the most comfortable shoes. Like we’re all equipped to be loving and to love what is. And prayer is always about bringing whatever is, into alignment with that broader, you know, energy within us and in the world of love.

Alison : You know, it’s interesting. I was reading or listening about you and it sounded like in your maybe it was high school years, you had a lot of things happen. And it made me think, I wonder whether that sort of fear or trauma helps crack open this desire for awakening? Do you know … And do you think that, You know, because you can’t really turn on the news without that, do you think, what do you think,  that’s indicative of something going on with humanity? Or it’s just those two things sometimes rub up against each other for me. Do you know?

Angela: Yes, I do. So, number one, I suspect that is what happened to me. You know, in high school, I broke a bone in my neck and was close to being paralyzed as a gymnast. My boyfriend and friend were killed in a car accident right after going to the mall to get my Christmas present. And something happened to a family member, that was quite devastating. And it all happened within a three week period. And I was almost in the car with my boyfriend and friend, and it was Just very interesting that I was not. And after that, I moved into a very deep grief before then, you know, I kind of was just. You know, I was definitely, you know, on track to do everything I could to please my mother and be a good girl and all that stuff. But I hadn’t experienced anything like this. And I had a moment. I couldn’t participate in gym class. And I was walking around the track and I was watching people laugh and play, and I couldn’t even locate a smile anymore. I couldn’t even Imagine one. And I just saw a tunnel and it was like I was dropping deeper and deeper in it. But as I was walking, it began to appear to me almost like physically, and in this physical thing I saw, I realized I could put my hands like in the tunnel and my feet and I could stop myself. And so and then I looked up and I saw this light and I began physically, this is all happening in an image. I’m just walking around the track in reality. But I started to inch toward this light and I had lots and I have had through my life many mystical experiences, supernatural experiences since then. And I think that, you know, began my journey. I mean, of course, like everyone’s journey, it went many, many different ways. And so I have a what I suspect, what I sense is happening on the planet today in this time of such equal disequilibrium, you know, is that the heart of humanity is opening and I think of the World Wide Web and like what’s allowing us to communicate, the way we are right now, as being the awakening of the global mind, if you will. Like you and I could pretty much learn anything. We’ve got information because of the web like it used to be information was power because it was rare to have the information. Now nothing about information is rare. What’s rare now? What humanity needs now is of the heart. And when I say of the heart, I mean of God is compassion.

Angela: Compassion is the rare healing elixir and currency we’re opening to. And trauma and compassion are very interestingly, interestingly linked. And so I feel like we’re going through trauma after trauma after trauma collectively, and it is breaking our hearts. It is breaking our hearts. And we want to numb ourselves. We want to not watch the news. We want to just we’ll all be in my corner of the world where everything’s okay. Or if we’re in a corner of a world where not everything’s okay, maybe we’re just trying to cope. I think what I want to do and I want to allow prayer to help me and I think all of us is might our hearts break open? Might our hearts break open. And when you let when I let when we let our hearts break open, we’re willing to lose. We’re willing to lose. And everything about our culture, especially in America, is win. Don’t lose. Yeah. So it feels so counterintuitive. And it’s it’s not. It’s it’s actually the opposite of that survival. Fear based in fear based instinct to rank, rank, rank, rise, rise. Rise up the ladder. We have to be willing to lose and in loss, as the Buddhists say, there is gain. But we are not trained for this. We got to feel our way into this prayerfully.

Alison : All right. That’s beautiful. Because so many times, um, it’s interesting because we have a lot of friends who’ve studied a Course in Miracles or are very, very spiritual, religious bent. And then lately, I know so many people that are atheists. And I think it’s so interesting that you talk on your website and also other talks about prayer for atheists, because I you know, I have one very, very, very good friend that does not believe in God, will not say it. And he got very sick and he could not believe all the love he got. And I said. That’s God. He was like, nope, you know? And I’m wondering, could you address that a little bit? Because people don’t talk about that. Yeah.

Angela: I’m so curious about that. Like when people say I don’t believe in God, I really wonder what they’re not believing in. And are they not just believing in the concept of God? The construct of God? You know, some male figure or something outside of us that could save us but doesn’t.  So many people today, you know, 1 in 5 Americans call themselves spiritual, but not religious. And in their sense of reality, they’ve been able to expand and mature their sense of God to include not simply a being, but a state of being. A state of being. You know, what I love about the 12 step program is there’s such an open mindedness, they just call it higher power if you’re in a 12 step program and you can work with your own imagination, whatever helps you relax into that kind of possibility. It doesn’t have to be a being. Now, what’s so interesting about atheists and prayer, there’s a bit written, not a lot, but I’ve read through a number of conversations of atheists who are completely at peace and feel very good about their intellectual decision and clarity about not being a believer in God. And yet they report, I keep wanting to pray. Why am I desiring to pray if I don’t believe in God? And is it just something, a habit in the reptilian part of my brain that won’t let go? What is it? And I love this one blog I read by an atheist named JD Mauer, and it’s entitled, Why As an Atheist, I pray?  And his feeling is, in terms of human potential, it’s reported that we may use 10% of our brain, right? There’s a lot more human potential that we have yet to access. And for him that’s considered like the higher power. And so how do we get at that? How do we get at that? And he experiences prayer as a method to access greater potential in solving his problems. So I might call that greater potentiality… Love, God, and he calls it, you know, Human potential that prayer allows him to access.

Alison : Hm. That’s interesting. Yeah.

Jean: Especially how semantics the words get all twisted. And you know, if you say the name Jesus, people just some people really love it and some people just turn their head, you know. And, I think we’re coming to a point where we have to drop so much of the language, which which is a form of separation and just really feel into each other’s— where is that person coming from? Like okay, maybe they don’t use the same words as I do, but I’m not going to try to make my point here. Try to get them to use my language, you know? Um, I think going back to what you said, Angela, that being compassion, whether whatever your beliefs are in.  My my husband used to say, Jeannie,  I’m not religious, I’m not spiritual. And I’d say, okay, well, sometimes it’s like if a tree said, okay, I’m not nature, right? You know?

Angela: Yes.

Jean: I said, I’m not going to arm wrestle you here. You know, Um, I said, You are A loving, loving human being. You are super kind. You are super generous. You think of others. You’re compassionate.  Yeah. Guess I am.

Angela: Boy, you’re so right, you know? Words seem to get in the way. And in this time of polarity and tribalism, you know, we’re not traversing to others very well. Polarity means I can’t even imagine how you think what you think. Like, not only do I not agree, like, I can’t even imagine it, right?  So this tribalism, this resistance to traverse to other, like what do you mean by the word God? What are you talking about? When I think of the word God, for me in my heart, it is that which is too vast to be named.

Alison : Yeah.

Angela: You know, it’s synonymous for me with mystery. And somehow, I’m able to have an intimacy and a relationship with mystery and intimacy. You know, and I don’t know why and how someone else is another way. But those words, they do seem to get in the way. But I love what you also are saying about compassion, because perhaps as our hearts continue to break open, we will reach for one another. We will Be curious enough to listen to one another. We might just feel so alone and isolated. We’ll finally want to hear from another.  What do you mean? What are you talking about?

Alison : That’s so, so, so true.  Do you have every day or maybe not a spiritual practice that you follow that maybe you could tell our listeners on us about?

Angela: Yes, I have. I have such a long spiritual practice. I mean, it’s just gotten added on to through the years and don’t do 100% of it every single day. But I meditate and I have time I spend in prayer. I do yoga. I journal. I probably do everything you all do, you know, and you know, I do really like to say to people, you know, the practice of prayer. I’ve been interviewed and they say even that term feels radical to me. Prayer practice, like we know a yoga is a, you know, can be a practice meditation practice, you know, prayer as a practice. So when I bow my head in prayer, I do like to bow my head. I think of the head bowing like is all my stinking thinking, all my analytical everything, you know, all my fear based things, all my arrogance. And, you know, I like to bow it. And when I bow it, I think of bowing it to my heart. I’m not talking about the physical organ of my heart, but I, I allow that to symbolize the, the greater expression of, of the divine. And just that will even feel good. And sometimes I do Silent prayer. Because I do feel at this point, for me, the prayers pray me and I go in and out of a lot of different modalities. I pray for a number of people and a number of things. It’s kind of strange to be a professional prayer, you know, so I’ve got like, you know, I’m in it to win it for a lot of people. And when I say that, I mean I’m in it to really hold the space of possibility for a number of people. So, you know, I pray several times a day and probably hours a day.

Alison : And it’s interesting when for a long time I was raised very Catholic and I’ve had so many changes in where I where my heart lies now. But it was interesting because when I was young, I thought if we said a prayer for someone named Bob, right now, I asked can you do one for me? I didn’t realize that by doing it for Bob, you are doing it for me. So I think it’s beautiful that you are saying that you’re holding because then I feel like you’re praying for me and mine and Jean. And that you are actually praying for everyone, because I believe that there’s no separation between myself and the people you’re praying for… But I used to like I used to try to glom on. Yes. You know.

Angela: Yes. Yes. And that’s okay, too. But that’s a that’s an advanced state of consciousness to realize your oneness with, Bob. And to know that as Bob is being prayed for, you are being prayed for. I actually in my podcast, I do a lot of reminding of that, like, and remember, as we pray for so and so feel how that is for you, feel how that is for a loved one.

Alison : And that all the healing that you’re creating there, you are creating healing for what we were talking before about the trauma.  That everyone seems to be involved in. I think we’re all involved in it. Yes.  Thank you.

Angela: You’re so welcome. Thank you.

Alison : Thank you very, very much.

Jean: Angela, before we sign off, can we can we do a little prayer together?

Angela: Yes, of course. And what would you like me to pray about for?

Jean: I think just just well-being for humanity and compassion.

Angela: Yeah. Okay.

Angela: Yeah. So we begin right now with just a few breaths where we’re willing to be still and quiet. You know, one mystic said that God is the breath within the breath. So as we breathe, might we consider that God, the vastness that is too great to be named,  The mystery that is only and always love. Could it be? Closer to me than the breath I even breathe within the breath? Could it be that with me, that with you, this Intelligence, this Love that knows no fear? Might I have? Might you have? Might we have a capacity to drop the fear, the worry, the anxiety. And the terror, the anguish, the despair and enter into the possibility of peace, of love, of joy, of lightness. Might the solution to the constriction of trauma might it be right here, right now with you? With me? With us? And might we let go? Might we let go? Might we let go? Maybe we could let go of one one trillionth of a percentage of our resistance. Any time we let go we’re opening to the divine that is right here with us. And from this willingness to let go, and if we’re not willing to let go, maybe we were willing to be willing. Just any openness to let go of our perspective that, “Oh, things are going to get worse. I don’t see how they’re going to get any better. Where are we going to go from here? Nobody’s solving the problems that need to be solved.” Can we go from that to any time we enter into compassion, we’re entering into a vibrational frequency of solution.

Angela: So might we open to compassion? And I do mean the compassion of each and every one of us. My compassion plus your compassion. Expands compassion for all of us. And even though there’s only one compassion, as each of us opens the door to our own portal of compassion, we’re setting the stage, we’re creating an environment where others will find it easier and easier. And what is compassion? Compassion is heart connection. Compassion is non-judgment. Compassion is forgiving. Compassion is understanding for not understanding. And I claim something magnificent is happening right here and right now as we join together in a welcoming of compassion. I accept that the power of prayer is upon us and there is no geographical limitation to prayer, that this prayer is everywhere on this earth, in all the waters of the oceans, in the air, in each and every heart of our beloved human family. And I truly open to something magnificent has happened as we have held this space for the dawning of global heart opening, the dawning of increased and expanded compassion. I let it be trusting the living word of Truth, of God, of Love spoken through And as me, I deliver it, to an unfailing, responsive, loving, friendly universe. Uni-verse one song. And in this release and in this let go, I allow And let it be. I allow and let it be. May we allow and let this compassion be and let it flourish. So be it. And so it is. Amen.

Jean: Amen

Alison : Amen

Alison : Thank you. And I love that you said might and may. That is a real gift. Thank you so, so much. I could listen to you all day.

Angela: Oh,  I would love. I could just and chit chat. I’m a my favorite thing to do is chit chat. You know, talk and just talk. So thank you. It’s such a pleasure.

Alison : Thank you for spending this time with us.

Jean: Yes, Thank you for you, what a gift.

Alison :  Yes. Thank you very much. So nice! Have a great day.

Angela: You too.

Alison : Bye bye.

Alison : I so enjoyed her, Jean. That’s how I’m going to talk from now on. What do you think? Does it suit me?

Jean: Not really. You know?  Her voice is stunning and her heart soothing.

Alison : And maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s just her heart is so open.

Jean: Yeah, I think, you know, she has done so much inner work, and the proof is in the pudding and that she shares this with others. And I think that’s what it’s about also, is that once we accept the gift of love for ourselves, then, you know, we turn around and extend that love to others. And love is not like this little, push over doormat. It is a force that is exquisite.

Alison : And I loved when she says might, the might in her prayer, which leaves up an opportunity and also like might, might the answer be here might I allow this because then you’re at a point of choice, like positive choice and might doesn’t feel like you have to, you know, it just feels like it’s an allowance. It’s an allowance and a willingness and it’s so gentle.

Jean: I love it. Yeah, that is why I tune into her Mondays, you know, it’s a beautiful platform. It’s so generous of her to to offer this. And, you know, whether you have a challenge in your life or whether, you know, the your pond is kind of calm. Just listening to her is a gift to yourself.

Alison : Might might we be ending?

Jean: We might.

Alison : Do you feel complete?

Jean: I do.

Alison : All right. We’re saying goodbye. Thank you so much for listening. Take care. Okay. Bye.