Guru Viking Podcast

In this episode, filmed in London, England, I am once again joined by Delson Armstrong, spiritual teacher, meditation virtuoso, and author of ”A Mind Without Craving”.

Delson recounts his recent close encounter with death in severe floods in Missouri. He recalls fighting for his life as ten feet of water filled his retreat cabin, and how he escaped with deep laceration in his foot.

Delson describes the surprising consequences of this experience including what he calls a “crotchety old man” attitude towards spiritual practice as entertainment or escapism, symptoms of trauma, and a new perspective on meditation and enjoying life.

Delson also talks about the dimension of spiritual luminosity, why he hasn’t meditated since the floods, his openness to a change in life direction, and the relationship between the will to live and the ego.

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Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Topics include:

00:00 - Intro
01:01 - Delson’s close encounter with death
06:07 - Pure survival instinct
08:47 - Escaping the flood
12:25 - Recovery
13:45 - Becoming a “crotchety old man” about spirituality
14:39 - Loosh and the demiurge
16:43 - Impatience with spiritual entertainment
17:25 - What’s important when you die
17:55 - Delson and Steve sit in silence
23:12 - Luminosity and the thinking mind
26:29 - Delson’s experience of luminosity
31:49 - Spiritual practice as escapism and avoidance
36:28 - How to embrace the present moment
40:53 - Delson’s intention to live to the fullest
42:15 - Waves and the ocean
42:54 - The importance of the spiritual journey
47:38 - Is Delson traumatised?
51:51 - Jhana-assisted therapy?
55:07 - Why Delson hasn’t meditated since the flood
57:38 - The spiritual ego
01:01:04 - There was no God that came at the point of death
01:02:14 - Meditation just for fun
01:04:01 - Surrender and openness to change of life direction
01:06:58 - Might Delson give up teaching?
01:08:26 - How to completely give up

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Watch previous episodes with Delson Armstrong:
- https://www.guruviking.com/search?q=delson

Find out more about Delson Armstrong:
- https://www.delsonarmstrong.com/events
- https://delsonarmstrong.substack.com/

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For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- https://www.guruviking.com

Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James

If you value the podcast and would like to support its continued production, you can do so here: https://ko-fi.com/guruviking.

In this episode, filmed in the city of London, I am joined by Har-Prakash Khalsa, artist, meditation teacher, and senior student and archivist of American meditation teacher Shinzen Young.

Har-Prakash takes a walk through London drawing on the sights and sounds of the environment to demonstrate meditation techniques and express his experience as an advanced meditator.

Har-Prakash reflects on being an introvert, shares meditation strategies to work with pain and sensory overload, and recalls his early days studying with Shinzen Young.

Har-Prakash also addresses common misconceptions about meditation and enlightenment, describes mystical experiences of cessation and nonduality, and emphasises the importance of adding psychological work to meditation practice.

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Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Topics Include:

00:00 - Intro
00:51 - Har-Prakash’s experience of the world as a meditator
04:25 - How to see the world differently
06:13 - Har-Prakash’s experience of the self
09:03 - Different types of cessations
12:23 - Experiencing emptiness in real time
14:11 - First cessation + working with Shinzen Young
15:16 - Dance of sensory experience
16:09 - Are mystical experiences inevitable for meditators?
18:06 - So what?
19:31 - Being useful to others
19:50 - Introversion and overcoming overwhelm
20:46 - Alienation and becoming invulnerable
22:09 - How to practice in daily life
25:24 - From meditating to “being meditated”
27:19 - Noting and labelling practice
32:48 - Dissociation and fast noting
34:07 - Noting practice as avoidance
35:54 - The ultimate addiction
40:01 - Common misunderstandings about Shinzen’s system
41:01 - Background equanimity
44:03 - Simultaneous zoom in / zoom out for knee pain
49:30 - #1 misunderstanding about enlightenment
51:43 - Adding psychological work to mindfulness

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To find our more about Har-Prakash Khalsa visit:
- https://www.cultivatingthejewel.com/

For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- https://www.guruviking.com

Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James

In this episode I am joined by Graham Nicholls, a leading teacher and writer of out of body experiences (OBE).

Graham recalls his working class upbringing in London, his unusual schooling in a Marxist-Feminist school, and reflects at length about the British class system and its effect on his personal life and his work as a teacher.

Graham details his occult explorations including contact with Goetia demons, mismatch with the chaos magic order the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT), and explains his initiations and subsequent dark night of the soul.

Graham also shares his unusual views on entities and the astral realm, considers the pros and cons of Wicca and other recently constructed traditions, and reflects on his ethos of scientific skepticism and experimentation.

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Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Topics Include:

00:00 - Intro
00:52 - Graham’s evolving understanding
03:04 - Personalised teaching style
05:45 - Graham’s working class upbringing in London
06:50 - Why Graham became internal
08:18 - Obsession with spiritual topics
09:47 - A childhood sense of destiny
12:31 - Positive and negative teacher reactions
15:32 - How would adult Graham understand a child like him?
17:00 - A strong father
18:40 - Reflections on being working class
22:49 - How class limit’s Graham’s spiritual teaching
26:02 - Cognitive dissonance and voting against your interests
28:39 - Addressing class from a spiritual context
29:40 - Diversity of London
30:11 - Graham’s Marxist-Feminist school
31:47 - Resistance to feminist and racist ideologies in school
37:31 - Reflecting on the purpose of Graham’s first book
38:53 - First encounter with a spiritual entity
42:45 - Unusual lack of fear
47:57 - Ethos against speculation and interpretation
48:11 - Fascination overrides fear
49:52 - Graham’s unusual opinion about dangers of OBE and entities
55:53 - Research into possession literature
58:39 - Do other teachers criticise Graham?
59:54 - Demons, djinn, and pre-Christian deities
01:05:20 - Graham’s interest in magick
01:07:59 - Joining the Oxford Golden Dawn
01:09:13 - Mismatch with the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT)
01:13:01 - Experimentation with the Goetia
01:17:10 - Working with a Goetian entity
01:20:51 - Graham’s Goetia experience
01:21:14 - What motivated Graham’s magickal career?
01:23:07 - Pros and cons of Wicca
01:23:56 - Aleister Crowley’s writing
01:26:32 - HGA working and Graham’s 18.5 year initiation process
01:28:46 - Dark night of the soul and aftermath of initiation
01:30:59 - Trance work and accumulation of spiritual changes
01:33:35 - Doing magick properly
0101:34:26 - Dedicated OBE practice
01:37:14 - Willpower vs letting go
01:40:22 - Parental support of Graham’s magickal practice

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To find our more about Graham Nicholls visit:
- https://www.grahamnicholls.com/

For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- https://www.guruviking.com

Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James

In this episode I am once again joined by Leigh Brasington, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of “Right Concentration, A Practical Guide to the Jhanas”.

Leigh discusses his new book “Love, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity: The Brahma Viharas – Suttas, Stories, Practices, Hidden Gems” in which he delves into the Pali canon of Buddhist scripture to shed new light on how to understand and practice these potent meditations.

Leigh gives detailed descriptions of each of the four brahma viharas. He draws from his decades of teaching experience, as well as scriptural and commentarial literature, to offer his best advice for how to utilise these methods in meditation practice.

Leigh reveals how far the brahma viharas can take you towards enlightenment, reflects on the trivialisation of love in today’s culture, and I challenge Leigh to retire what I describe as a tired cliché of Western Buddhist pedagogy.

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Episode link in bio.

Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Topics Include:

00:00 - Intro
01:05 - Why Leigh wrote the book
05:50 - How far towards enlightenment can brahma vihara practice take you?
08:54 - Entering the jhanas with the brahma vhiaras
11:48 - Defining “brahma vihara”
13:41 - Paucity of sutta evidence to link the four attitudes with the term “brahma vihara”
14:12 - The Buddha did not invent the brahma viharas
16:43 - Using phrases is a much later development
18:14 - The pervading practice
19:51 - Ayya Khema’s metta practice method
22:32 - Steve’s brahma vihara story
25:46 - Real or fake?
28:19 - Brahma vihara as antidote practice
32:25 - Steve challenges Leigh on mudita claims
37:17 - Suttas do not teach mudita as appreciative joy
37:44 - Leigh’s disappointment in the English language
39:25 - How to practice appreciative joy
40:43 - Can we retire the cliche?
42:30 - Does the West lack the concept of appreciative joy?
44:13 - Metta, unconditional love
47:27 - Problems with “unconditional love”
47:54 - Trivialisation of love
50:34 - Attachment vs love
53:07 - How to practice metta in daily life
56:43 - How metta reduces personal suffering
59:17 - Less thinking, more loving
01:03:25 - Late night reading and being a night owl
01:04:15 - Karuna, compassion and kindness
01:07:42 - Compassion is active
01:10:40 - Do gooders and dumb compassion
01:14:52 - Compassion burnout
01:20:01 - Does compassion need results?
01:21:16 - Ambiguity of sickness
01:22:56 - Upekkha, equanimity
01:25:28 - Leigh’s stories of equanimity
01:32:54 - Equanimity vs apathy
01:36:14 - States, traits, and the equanimity range
01:39:12 - Antidote to freak out
01:43:32 - Bias and practicing equanimity with political enemies
01:45:47 - Exchanging self and other and reducing self clinging
01:49:10 - Will brahma vihara lead you to enlightenment?
01:54:17 - Leigh’s mahasiddha story
01:55:49 - The beauty of the metta sutta
01:57:40 - Leigh reads the metta sutta

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Previous episodes with Leigh Brasington:
- https://www.guruviking.com/search?q=brasington

To find our more about Leigh Brasington visit:
- http://www.leighb.com/

For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- https://www.guruviking.com

Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James

In this episode I am joined by Peter Kelly, independent spiritual teacher and author of “The Phoenix Birth” and “The Saturated Breath”.

Peter recalls his troubled childhood, struggles with crime and addiction, imprisonment, and subsequent spiritual quest.

Peter recounts what he describes as a series of powerful spiritual initiations that he believes have led him to the level of adept, how his use and facilitation of ayahuasca trips contributed to his path, and the role that esoteric reading has played in informing his insights.

Peter reveals that he has slept for only 30 minutes a night for most of his life, details childhood astral learning and experiences of gnosis in contact with ascended masters such as Kuthumi, and emphasises the importance of fully embodying spiritual truth.

I also question Peter about his claim to specialise in the “alchemy of the Egyptian Priesthood and Hermetic Traditions, the sacred wisdom of the fire temples of Zoroastrianism, and the Qabalah of the Essene and Mosaic traditions”, among others and suggest that in doing so he risks misrepresenting both those traditions and his own teachings.

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Episode link in bio.

Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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01:20 - Peter’s childhood
03:29 - Drugs, alcohol, and crime
04:42 - Prison, rehab, and becoming a father
05:17 - Healing work and interest in esoteric wisdom
05:47 - 9 years of intense initiations
06:20 - Boyhood
08:05 - Peter has slept 30 minutes a night for most of his life
10:16 - Aastral plane teaching during childhood
11:05 - Unusual spiritual knowledge
14:14 - Wired but drained
14:44 - How much does Peter sleep now?
15:19 - Ascended masters and spiritual activation at age 6
19:54 - A bodily sense of knowing about Egyptian culture
21:42 - What is gnosis?
23:46 - Deep healing work, ayahuasca, and connection to esoteric teachings
28:53 - Initiations, unlocking parts, and visions
30:19 - Hermeticism and perennialism
31:02 - Peter’s understanding of the Egyptian tradition and alchemy
31:51 - Teaching what comes through
32:22 - How Peter draws on various religious systems in his client work
34:58 - Using the names of traditions to help people understand Peter’s work
38:36 - Peter’s 3 types of learning
40:09 - Peter’s esoteric and religious reading
42:32 - Graham Hancock’s books and linking to the astral plane
43:50 - Reading in archaeology, the occult, Egypt, and Tarot
46:08 - Finding a book that explains a past experience
46:58 - A personal perspective on ancient traditions
48:55 - Ayahuasca, Youtube, and Crowley
53:00 - Youtube became stale
53:42 - Spiritual experiences make sense of esoteric books
56:59 - Gnosis vs intellectual learning about symbols
01:02:28 - More on intellectual absorption and different was of knowing
01:05:58 - Peter reflects on his ayahuasca trips and learning to trust his experience
01:08:26 - Embodying knowledge
01:08:49 - How Peter correlates his experiences to traditions
01:13:46 - Peter’s understanding of the traditions in which he claims to specialise
01:18:32 - Is Peter a specialist in Zoroastrianism and Hermeticism etc?
01:21:23 - Using traditional terminology
01:22:32 - The dangers of using traditional terminology
01:26:18 - Is Peter misrepresenting traditions and his own work?
01:26:52 - Peter reflects on his use of traditional terminology
01:28:14 - Peter Kellyianism
01:30:50 - Dedication to truth, even when it’s uncomfortable to hear
01:32:41 - Communication with Master Kuthumi and other astral teachers
01:38:08 - Peter’s understanding of consciousness
01:39:38 - How Peter became a Western Adept
01:47:16 - Isolation and learning to live in the world
01:52:08 - What triggers Peter’s initiation experiences
01:55:18 - Defining “adeptship”
02:02:54 - What is a “Western” adept?

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To find our more about Peter Kelly visit:
- https://peterkelly.online/

For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- https://www.guruviking.com

Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James