Accidental Gods

If we're on the edge of chaos, how can we bring all the good ideas together - the right people with the right skills at the right time - and craft an ecosystem of ecosystems to affect radical change? How can we save ourselves from extinction. Humanity Rising offers an answer. "What's the equivalent, by 2030, of putting humanity on the moon? What do we need to do that is bigger than life, worthy of human nobility, such that if it put into action around the world, we would be credited as that generation of human beings that when the chips were down really made a difference? That's what we want to do. That's the aspiration for Humanity Rising to work together with like-minded, similarly inspired people from all over the world. Over the next 10 years to make the critical difference necessary to ensure human survival."Radical activists, educators, academics and entrepreneurs, Jim Garrison and Matt Robinson of Ubiquity University have launched the world's most ambitious summit - using the cutting edge of modern technology and bringing together hundreds of organisations and hundreds of thousands of committed activists - Humanity Rising sees the beginning of the wave that could change the world. If we commit to it. Jim and Matt talk to Accidental Gods about the project, how it arose, and their visions for the future. Ubiquity University: https://www.ubiquityuniversity.org/Here are the access links for Humanity Rising:Registration: http://humanityrising.solutions/The Humanity Rising schedule can be found here: https://humanityrising.solutions/agenda/If the maximum amount of Zoom webinar participants is reached you can watch the live stream here:https://www.facebook.com/UbiquityUniversityOnlinehttps://www.youtube.com/c/UbiquityUniversityhttps://www.awaketvnetwork.live/humanity-rising-channelIf you missed a session the recording can be found here:https://ubiverse.org/groups/humanity-rising-global-solutions-summit/documentsMatt's Poem: Humanity Rising - A New Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u1aPyx_8fU

In the midst of lockdown, how can we find resilience and emotional balance? How can we make the connections we need to feel safe -- in our bodies, in our relationships, out in the world...and on our Zoom calls? How can we feel truly alive? Therapist Sarah Schlote has much-needed answers...Life is changing and we need to find ways to keep ourselves emotionally resilient. Sarah Schlote, therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, has spent her professional life exploring the pathways by which we find safety - in our own bodies, in our closest relationships, and out in the world. In today’s podcast, we explore the ways we can find the connection that science (and experience) tells us we need to feel safe in the presence of others. We explore ways that we can work towards safety in Zoom (or other video) calls in both one to one situations and in larger groups. We look at strategies we can all use all the time to help us navigate the novel circumstance of a global threat. Links: Sarah’s personal site: https://sarahschlote.comSarah’s Healing Refuge: https://healingrefuge.com/our-team/sarah-schlote/Equusoma: https://equusoma.com/Sarah’s “Freesources” page - has brilliant diagrams: https://equusoma.com/freesources/Steven Porges: https://www.stephenporges.comPeter Levine’s ‘Trauma therapist project’ https://www.thetraumatherapistproject.com/podcast/peter-levine-phd/Book Spiritual Bypassing: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spiritual-Bypassing-Spirituality-Disconnects-Matters/dp/1556439059/

Dr Gail Bradbrook is best known as being one of the co-founders of Extinction Rebellion. But she's also a StreetSchool Economist and deeply passionate visionary and here, we explore the spirit of activism that underpins her work - and look forward to future Rebellions held in the trickster spirit of Fox and Crow. Dr Gail Bradbrook has a PhD in molecular biophysics. She was founder of a program called ‘StreetSchool Economics’. She’s a visionary, social and spiritual activist - and, of course, she’s best known as one of the co-founders of Extinction Rebellion. She has a deeply held spiritual path that underpins the values of all her work - being in service to the earth in the best way she can guides everything she does. In this podcast, she talks about those values, about the moments when she prayed for help - and was answered - and about the vision that drives the latest dreams of how we move away from the corruption of the current system to the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Links to people or ideas mentioned in the podcast: Extinction Rebellion - https://rebellion.earthThis is not a Drill (Book): https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Not-Drill-Extinction-Rebellion-ebook/dp/B07R57LTG5XR Podcast Episode 11 featuring Jason Hickel: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/xr-podcast/episodes/2020-05-17T19_00_00-07_00XR YouTube featuring Ian Haney Lopez and Adam Elliott-Cooper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U7PYZCObtkStreet School Economics: https://streetschooleconomics.wordpress.comGail Bradbrook ‘Adventures in New Economics’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rUk-r0G1eQCharles Eisenstein: https://charleseisenstein.orgFrederic Laloux Reinventing Organisations: https://www.reinventingorganizations.comTax Cast: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=620020246

Where does a true, deep sense of inner safety come from? How do we recognise safety in ourselves and our environment? And how can that sense of safety be undermined? Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Sarah Schlote, explains how our deepest selves find balance. Recent advances in neuroscience have shed light on those things that are most precious to us - a sense of equanimity and inner safety, of balance, and of the capacity to relate in ways that leave us feeling nourished. All of these stem from early patterning and recognising the times we're off balance can help us to find how best to resource ourselves. In this deep dive into the neurophysiology of poly-vagal theory, Sarah Schlote, director of the Healing Refuge in Canada, and of Equusoma, the centre for Horse-Human recovery, relays in lyrical, human terms, the ways to healing that arise from an understanding of how we recognise safety, danger and life-threat. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. In the second part, we'll explore the routes to rebalancing and the implications to our sense of wellbeing that arise out of lockdown. The Healing Refuge is here: https://healingrefuge.comEquusoma is here: https://equusoma.comStephen Porges' Polyvagal theory here: https://www.stephenporges.com

We spend our lives squinting past the inevitable reality of our own death. But suppose we were able to talk about it openly, to shape it, to embrace it so that by contemplating a good death, we could become fully alive? Dr Judith Wester is a thanatologist: an academic who specialises in the study of death, dying and the cultural rituals of many nations. Her life is given to teaching others of all ages and in all walks of life how to broach this subject with themselves and so with other people. In this deep dive into death, Judith explains the difference between death, dying and dead, between grief, mourning and bereavement - and looks into the ways we could explore beyond the inevitable mortality of each of us, to the mortality of our culture - and how something new might be reborn from the ashes in this time of Corona Lockdown. Judith's website is here: https://cedareducation.org.uk/

If Lockdown is a moment of death and rebirth, what do we want to conceive? And how can we connect to the Web of Life in ways that will help us to conceive the best possible future? Angharad Wynne offers the wisdom of a life lived on the edge of being - and a close encounter with death - to this conversation of ancestors, Brythonic lore and red kites. Angharad Wynne is a visionary, land-walker and storyteller. She works to reconnect people from around the world with the wild lands and ancient lore of Britain. Her own encounter with death has transformed an already-deep connection to the land, and the lore of the islands of Britain. She draws inspiration from her storytelling - and the ways it is led by the deeper needs of the ancestors to have their voices heard - and from her spiritual practice, leading pilgrimages deep into the edge-spaces of Wales. She is a profoundly spiritual individual with a deep, grounded, authentic understanding of the potential of this moment - and the world's most beautiful voice.Her website is here: https://www.angharadwynne.comCae Mabon is here: https://www.caemabon.co.ukand the book she mentions is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ancestral-Medicine-Rituals-Personal-Healing/dp/1591432693/ref=sr_1_1

What do we do with this time of lockdown? How can we use it in ways that will lead us to a more flourishing world, without guilt-tripping ourselves or adding pressure to an already-pressured time? Nathalie Nahai of The Hive podcast and Manda Scott of Accidental Gods, share thoughts, feelings and explore the edges of being. Nathalie's humanity, and her deep, broad grasp of psychology, particularly the psychology of online influences and the ethics around them, informs all of her work. In this conversation, we explore together what lockdown means, and how we might grasp this moment in ways that will leave all of us better when it's over, but that won't leave us guilt-tripped or (even more) exhausted. We explore what it means to be human. How to transcend the moment and the psychology of pleasure versus happiness. Join us, and enjoy… I'll put up a meditation as a podcast after this, but if you want more, deeper, try here: https://accidentalgods.life/what-if-imagining-the-new-future-our-hearts-know-is-possible/

As discussed in episode 9, this is a thirty minute mediation focussed on the question of WHAT IF we got it all right from this moment forward. If we can really begin to feel the emotional reality as a physical thing, a felt-sense in our bodies, so that it suffuses all of us - then we can aim for this. If you want longer variations - or if you live in the Southern hemisphere and would prefer to go north, than south - you'll find more here: https://accidentalgods.life/what-if-imagining-the-new-future-our-hearts-know-is-possible/

Rob Cobbold is founding editor of consciousevolution.co.uk. He's a critical thinker, a program manager for the Green Schools partnership and is studying for a Masters in Sustainable Leadership. He's a key mover in the world of conscious evolution and here, he describes why consciousness is the next evolutionary step and how we might get there. I haven't often had the pleasure of speaking with someone else whose life revolves around the concept of conscious evolution: what it is, why its time is now (with increasing urgency) and how we might move the great, hypercomplex, super-connected web of humanity towards it. Rob has both a materialist and a spiritual perspective on the ways we might reach conscious evolution so this was a particularly interesting deep dive into what it will take to reach our critical mass. Rob's website is https://www.consciousevolution.co.ukHe refers to John Stewart's Evolutionary Manifesto, which is here: http://www.evolutionarymanifesto.com/man.pdfHe recommends Charles Eisenstein's 'New and Ancient Story' podcast which is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-new-and-ancient-story-the-podcast/id1047290956He refers to ‘This View of Life’ by David Sloan Wilson - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/246844/this-view-of-life-by-david-sloan-wilson/ I mentioned 'The Listening Society' by Hanzi Freinacht, which is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Listening-Society-Metamodern-Politics-Guides-ebook/dp/B074MKQ4LR/ref=sr_1_2 ...and he recommended that I talk to John Stewart, and Daniel Schmachtenberger... both of which have been invited to feature on the podcast.

Visionary, healer and author of two books on ancient indigenous and contemporary shamanic practice, Chris Luttichau is a beacon of grounded integrity in this time of upheaval. In this week's podcast, we explore how the indigenous peoples' view this time, and how we can respond to the challenges of the moment. This was recorded on the third day of lockdown in the UK. Our world is changing and we're feeling things we've never felt. Or feeling them more deeply. Or strangely. If ever there was a time to re-connect with our heritage, to re-discover the ancient teachings of the indigenous shamanic peoples of every continent, that time is now. In this podcast, Chris Luttichau shares the teachings of the Inner and Outer Minds, of the Four Attentions, and offers a meditation to help us to become grounded in our own Heart Minds. If we're going to step into a new way of being, if we're going to connect with the More than Human world, to make the step into conscious evolution, these are the skills we will need. Chris Luttichau's website is here: Northern DrumHis books are 'Animal Spirits' and 'Calling us Home'And the YouTube version of the HeartMind girl dancing, is here.

As our world turns over, we turn to the new-old ways to discover how we could do things differently. In this raw, deep, honest conversation with shamanic practitioner, Ya'acov Darling Khan, we talk about what we can do - and his new book. Ya'acov Darling Khan is an international teacher of Movement Medicine and a shamanic practitioner. His new book: 'Shaman: Invoking Power, Presence and Purpose in the Core of who YOU Are' is out on 30th of March - a clarion call for the new era where we know our globalised links and have found that we can co-operate in ways that leave the dinosaurs of our governments far behind the curve. In this insightful, raw conversation, Ya'acov and Manda Scott explore the nuances of the present moment, their own personal responses to it, and the sense of opening and transformation that we could lift from now... along with the rage, grief, desperation and horror at all that is happening. In the words of Greta Thunberg: 'It is no longer enough to be the best of ourselves. We need to be better.' Here, we explore some of the ways that could happen.

The world is not as it was. Every one of us is touched by this. We are a global community now, striving to find sovereignty, balance - and a way forward that is healing for us all. In this podcast, Manda Scott explores the routes to inner resilience, without which, there can be no outer coherence. Joanna Macy calls this the Great Unravelling - a time when everything changes. And we are human, so most of us live somewhere on the spectrum between finding change unsettling, to finding it genuinely terrifying. Where we are on that scale is often dictated by our inner resilience: our ability to return to inner stability after a destabilising shock. So just now, when the shocks are coming daily, our ability to find resilience is critical. In this podcast, we explore some of the ways we can return to a place of inner wholeness, of balance, from which we can generate the courage, clarity, connection and compassion we'll need to flourish in a world of uncertainty.

Daniel Thorson, host of the ground-breaking, innovative - and hugely courageous - Emerge podcast is a Buddhist monastic, activist and meta-modern thinker. In this conversation, we dive deeply into what it means to be human - and how we can live as the best of ourselves. The Emerge podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in exploring human potential as we surge into the anthropocene. Its host, Daniel Thorson is fearless in exploring the ways we can evolve, interviewing thought-leaders in the fields of psychology, philosophy, spirituality - all individuals engaged in finding ways we can become the best of ourselves - and better. A former activist/organiser at Occupy Wall Street, Daniel has spent tens of thousands of hours in meditation, and almost as many thinking deeply about the ways we can move forward in the heart of the Anthropocene. In this conversation, we have the opportunity to join his enquiry, to find out where his work has taken him, to dive deeply into what it means to be alive now, and the ways we can move forwards as individuals and as a collective. His suggested must-read book is The OverStory by Richard PowersHis suggested listening, is/are Rob Burbea's Dharma Talks And the Emerge podcast website is hereHappy listening!As ever, if you want to connect with us, we're at Accidental Gods.

Rabbi Jill Hammer is committed to an earth based and a wildly mythic view of the world in which nature, ritual and story connect us to the body of the cosmos and to ourselves. In this conversation, we dive deep into the meaning of life, the role of dreams in a spiritual life and how we might find hope in the face of climate breakdown. Jill is an author, midrashist, mystic, poet, essayist and Hebrew Priestess. Director of spiritual education at the academy of Jewish Religion in New York and co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. She is committed to an earth based and a wildly mythic view of the world in which nature, ritual and story connect us to the body of the cosmos and to ourselves - she has been called 'a Jewish Bard'. In this episode, we explore some of her extraordinary life, and how her Jewish roots have led her to explore the gendered nature of Divinity, the Kabbalah, and how to interpret dreams in a way that is at once thoroughly modern and absolutely ancient. Links: Rabbi Jill HarmerThe Kohenet Hebrew Priestess InstituteThe Academy of Jewish Religion

If, as philosopher, Green party activist, University Professor and XR activist, Rupert Read is right, our civilisation is finished. We'll either collapse, or transform to the point of being unrecognisable. So... this being the case, what can we do? Rupert Read is one of our generation's greatest, and deepest green thinkers. Join us in this discussion of how we can move forward. Rupert Read is convinced that societal collapse is inevitable - and near. And that this is White Swan effect - it's not remotely surprising or coming out of left field. So this being the case, we need to act - we have a choice between crashing into extinction OR moving forward to a transformation of our culture and society so profound that what transpires bears no resemblance to the current society. Given that this is the case, what can we do? In this lively, dynamic conversation with Rupert Rea, we delve into the topic of Deep Adaptation, Transformative Adaptation and the various routes to a different future. We explore the routes Extinction Rebellion could take to avoid 'rushing the rebellion' and look forward at ways we could craft the world we need to see. Biography: Prof. Rupert Read is one of the definitive spokespersons on ‘The Collapse’. He is the co-author of This Civilisation is Finished. The book describes how Industrial civilisation has no future. It requires limitless economic growth on a finite planet. The reckless combustion of fossil fuels means that Earth’s climate is changing disastrously in ways that cannot be resolved by piecemeal reform or technological innovation…. Unless humanity does something beautiful and unprecedented, the ending of industrial civilisation will take the form of collapse, which could mean a harrowing die-off of billions of people’. He has been a frequent spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. This has involved meetings with senior politicians from across the political spectrum. He represents Extinction Rebellion on national radio and television, including Radio 4’s Today programme and the BBC’s Question Time and Politics Live. He teaches philosophy at the University of East Anglia, and created and (until recently) led the ‘philosophy of presence’ group in Norwich. He was taught by Joanna Macy, Thich Nhat-Hanh, Richard Rorty and Stanley Cavell.This Civilisation is Finished, by Rupert ReadAn Eco-Spiritual Basis for Rebellion Against Extinction - Schumacher College

If we can open our eyes and look in the mirror of the world, we can open ourselves to the InterBeing that allows Active Hope as we face the chaos of our world. In this interview, Della Duncan, Renegade economist, host of the Upstream podcast, and practitioner of Joanna Macy's Work that Reconnects, explores the ways to a sustainable and equitable future. Podcaster, economist, and spiritual activist, Della Duncan is deeply integrated in the movement for human and planetary change. In this deep-diving conversation, we explore what it is to 'InterBe' such that we can take our place fully in the web of consciousness. Drawing deeply on her own experience, Della explores the ceremonies that we can undertake to help us shift our consciousness to reach a place where we can open our eyes and see ourselves in the mirror of the world. As someone who has trained directly and intensively with Joanna Macy, Della teaches widely the Work that Reconnects and seeks to apply the sense of turning towards the world in every moment of life. We discuss the ways that reframing the economy can be a bridge between those seeking systemic social change and those engaged in spiritual activism, look at the 'Upstream' metaphor and how finding the source of malaise is as important as rescuing those who are being damaged by our current system. Within the framework of the Three Pillars of the Great Turning: Holding Actions; Systemic Change; and Shifting Consciousness, through the dynamics of systemic change and the leverage points of change, Della lays out the ways we can move towards equity, sustainability and a life well lived. Della's website: https://www.dellazduncan.comThe Upstream podcast website: https://www.upstreampodcast.orgA view into Joanna Macy's Three Pillars of the Great Turning http://beamsandstruts.com/bits-a-pieces/item/980-joanna-macy-and-the-three-pillars-of-the-great-turningMari Kondo's website https://konmari.comMarianne Williamson website: https://marianne.comKen Wilbur's quadrants: https://integrallife.com/four-quadrants/

For most of us, falling in love with the absolute wonder of being alive is a distant dream. Nonetheless, changing how we feel is the goal of most self-help courses, a great deal of therapy and most of the routes that lead to alcohol and drug abuse.Suppose we could do it intelligently, with a generosity-of-spirit that allows us really to fall in love with the act of living. So that each moment of life becomes a wonder, however it is lived?In this final podcast of series 1, we take a look at this ultimate sticking point in our society. For many of us, feeling just isn’t safe and feeling good is either self-indulgence or self delusion. Or at least, that’s what we’ve programmed ourselves to believe.But imagine a world where everyone was in love with living every moment of the day. Where we knew as a felt sense, that life was inspiring, and there to be explored. Where the magic of the days touched every interaction with ourselves, other people and the world around us.None of this is impossible. Childhood trauma notwithstanding, we do have the ability to choose how we feel, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. I can open to the things that make my heart grow – or I can recycle the things that make it shrink. (With the coda that for some of us, our history of trauma is too great and we are hijacked by the impact of that on our bodies – therapy is a key resource and one to be used if at all possible.)For most of us, though, we let our default feelings define the tenor and thread and weave of our lives. And we don’t have to. In fact, we need not to do this for any longer than we can help.In this podcast, we explore the ways we can shift out of our defaults to something that lets us flourish. Because the world needs nothing less from us now.Jonathan Haidt - the Righteous Mind https://www.amazon.co.uk/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0141039167/ref=sr_1_1Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IICN1F8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0Peter Levine: In an Unspoken Voice: how the body releases trauma and restores goodness https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009BVWRLO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2Stephen Porges: Polyvagal theory: https://www.stephenporges.comJonathan Franzen - What if we stopped pretending? https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretendingJem Bendell - Deep Adaptation: http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdfRupert Read: This Civilisation is Finished: https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Civilisation-Finished-Conversations-Empire/dp/0994282834/ref=sr_1_1

Emergence from Complex Systems is a thing. And the thing about it is, that there are only two options when a system reaches maximal complexity: collapse to chaos and extinction OR emergence to a new phase. We prefer the second option, so this is a look at complexity - and at the levers of change in any system. Complexity is all around us - in fact if we're looking for a distinction between complicatED things as opposed to comPLEX things, then it's that people make things complicated (but linear, and readily described) while the whole of the rest of the web of life makes things that are complex... from a cell to an organ to a human (or animal, or plant) body, to an ecosystem, to our climate, to the entire planetary biosphere... (which is why modern medicine doesn't get so far when it tries to treat us all as if we were basically clockwork and all they have to do is fix the flywheel...)Anyway - if we're going to understand how we tick, if we're going to understand why the non-linear tipping points of complex systems trend towards infinity quite so fast (think methane hydrates boiling off in the arctic causing runaway global heating) - and particularly if we're going to get to grips with why and how we might reach a stage where conscious evolution is the next emergent property of the hyper-complex system of human society... We need to understand the basics of complexity. And when we've got our heads around this, it's useful to have a look at the Levers of Change by which any complex system may be nudged - because the non-linear nature of complex systems means that the ways we might, say, change the trajectory of a jetliner are not the same ways we might influence a complex system. So we look at that, too, with honour given to Donella Meadows for coming up with the twelve point list. If you want to look more at her work, it's hereIf you want to look at the twelve points specifically, try here

What would our lives look like if we knew how to become the best of ourselves? If we could hack our way into a sense of authenticity that allowed us to live with integrity? Let’s find out…. As is clear by now, if large numbers of us are going to find a way to move towards conscious evolution, then we have to solve the problem of how ordinary, time-poor, stressed out people in a world hurtling towards chaos and calamity, can find the time, space and bandwidth actually to become the change we need to see in the world.To this end, we explored the neuroscience of habits in the last podcast and now, here, we want to look at how habits shape who we are as people. Because really quite large amounts of our lives are habits of feeling which lead to habits of thought which lead to habits of action. And if we’re going to reach a place where conscious evolution is the next iterative step, we need to learn how to feel, think and act differently in world in which our default is usually to pick a behaviour from our tool kit and implement it.

Why are some habits easy to form (immoral, illegal or bad for your health, as my dad used to say) - but the ones we actually want, are far harder to set up? 'Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny' - Lao Tsu mapped the progress from habits of thought (and we would add habits of feeing) towards the truth of what we become. In this week's podcast, we take a deep dive into the neuroscience of habits: how they form and how we can set ourselves up for maximal success with the ones we *actually want*. We map the core science of what makes our habits move from simply things we do once, to things that we do without thinking them... that then have a core impact on who we are and how we design our energy through the days, both as individuals and as a culture. We look at the absolute basics of reinforcement (positive and negative) and how habits become enduring - by becoming easy, obvious, attainable and definable and having four distinct parts: a trigger/cue that tells us this behaviour needs to happen now; a desire; the behaviour; and the reinforcement or reward. Taking a particular behaviour of listening to a 5 minute visualisation we look at how to anchor this as a habit within our existing behavioural sequence, with a deeper dive into the nature of intrinsic reinforcement. We look four of the main internal reinforcers: Dopamine, Serotonin Oxytocin and Endorphins. We explore clean loops, backchaining and real world applications of habit-building.

How do you create heart coherence and inner resilience? This episode of the podcast explores the ways we can balance head-mind and heart-mind to create the kinds of inner equanimity that allow us to flourish, whatever the outer world throws at us.If we’re going to reach conscious evolution, we need to be able to stand in balance in the world – a key part of which is that we learn how to open the routes from head to mind to heart so that we can begin to feel what we choose to feel – rather than reacting to our amygdalas.The early podcasts opened the concept of ReAwakening into Connection with the Other-than-Human world. The previous podcast opened the door to Growing into Coherence – the ways in which we can use the fact that ‘what fires together wires together’ to develop a practice of close and open focus meditations.This podcast explores the routes towards Heart Coherence – which develops outwardly as regularities in heart rate variability. There is more on this at the Heart Math Center: and at the Mind Life Institute.The ability to build coherent heart-based sensations – of joy, or compassion, or love, or gratitude, or wonder, or awe… or whatever it is most open to us and most available in the moment as a default sensation that we can revert to in moments when we don’t need to be thinking about something else. Because what fires together wires together, if we can begin to develop theseThe second part of the podcast explores intent focused meditations – the ability to hone our attention into a clear, clean intention in a way that manifests in a changing reality in the world – focused on the creation of conscious evolution.Leading from these, we come to the last two parts of the four step route towards conscious evolution: Asking for Help, and Letting Go.In Asking for Help – we need to take our place in the web of life, and ask ‘what are we here for’ in ways that yields answers that are clear, coherent and constructive. So we have to be able to ask in ways that are free of ego, judgement, projection and fear. We need also have built a set of authentic, grounded relationships with the Other-than-Human world so that we can ask for help and hear answers that make sense to us. This requires that we hone our faculties of attention so that we can interpret the responses as they come to us – this is part of the practice that will take us forward. Each of us needs to understand our own internal landscapes so that we can make our own interpretations cleanly. This is a hugely personal practice that takes time – and a degree of trust – to develop. Trust grows over time and we need to build it.and then – when we can stand in balance; when we can become fully coherent so that we are able to stand in our own power, cleanly and clearly; when we have practiced asking questions in ways that yield clean, clear, coherent answers…Then we can balance on the knife edge of the moment so that we are pure awareness, knowing that all we have to do is ask for help in that space of unknowing where all that we have to do is ask for help and wait for the answers in a place where we can hear cleanly. And this is not going to be a one-hit event. It’s a thing we build to and then we practice it over and over – and if enough of us are practicing this, then this practice will yield a sense of the future iterations that take us to conscious evolution.This isn’t hard. It’s not rocket science. It’s just going to take quite a lot of us, working together.If this sounds good to you, there's more detail - and meditations/visualisation at https://accidentalgods.life

In this episode, we look more closely at HOW to grow into coherence.There are four obvious types of meditation, mindfulness, contemplation – whatever you want to call it– and we explore how these four types form the foundation of this work. All of them help us to build our focused attention into intention.As we’ve said already, the key to successful practice – to building enduring habits – is to evoke a background affective texture (that is, a feeling) that is intimately woven with the act of our practice. The feeling of Joyful Curiosity – the child-like wonder of something truly magical happening – is the key to this. If each breath, or each moment of watching a candle flame, or a leaf or whatever we choose, is utterly magical, then it’s far more likely to be engaging and we’re far more likely to want to bring our mind back again to the single point of focus.And then we move to Open Focus meditation, which is the same kind of life skill, but spread out into everything we experience in the moment: everything we see, hear, smell, taste, feel – all of it, as it happens, in the moment. This is an eyes open meditation and a really good grounding for becoming fully present through the days.Find us at: https://accidentalgods.life

Of the four steps to conscious evolution and the paradigm shift that we need, this is the one that most people have explored at some point. This is the place where we shift our brain patterns from beta pattens to theta, delta or – rarely so far, but I think it’ll become more frequent – gamma. This is where we make the most of the fact that what fires together wires together so that we can begin to have more control over what we think and what we feel, so that in the end, we can reshape both. This is where we learn to focus our attention, to build a clear and concise intention; where we remember what it is to balance on the knife edge of the moment and free ourselves up from the endless iterations of our fears of the future or despair at the past. This, effectively, is where we find what it is to be the best of ourselves. And the good news is, this is the easiest bit to work on – it just takes time. So we’ll explore the beginnings of this – of what we can do and why, and what the implications might be for our integration and our end goal of conscious evolution. And then in the next episode, we’ll look explicitly at how we can do it. In this third episode of the Accidental Gods podcast, we dive more deeply into what Growing into Coherence actually means and how we might approach it.Find us at: https://accidentalgods.life

Re-Awakening into Connection is the core of what Accidental Gods is about – the return of our heritage, our birthright, our ability to live in context with the web of life. It’s not long in evolutionary terms, since we were a part of the living world, able to ask questions, and answer the questions that were asked of us. Now, as we stand on the cusp either of catastrophe or extraordinary change, we need to regain that capacity: we need to re-awaken our innate abilities so that we can take our part in the web of life, in full confidence that we are the right people in the right place at the right time to do whatever is asked of us to affect the change the world needs. So – how do we do this? How do we bring ourselves to a point where we can walk out into the natural world and open ourselves to a conversation that is going on every moment of every day and every night – without us? How can we ask questions and hear answers in a way that feels as if we are part of a genuine, authentic, reciprocal relationship? How can we become clear enough that our listening is not tainted by our egos, our judgements of self or other, our projections and our sheer terror of getting things wrong? (or right).In this podcast, we talk about this, and propose some answers. None of this happens overnight. We can’t undo the domestication of a lifetime in a few minutes – but it can be done. We are born able to connect. We just need to remember how. And then we need to take our place in the web of consciousness with a sense of integrity and confidence that we’re the right people in the right place at the right time, doing what is needed of us – without ego, projection or fear. It’s fun. Trust me.Listen to the full episode here or find out more and read the transcript at https://accidentalgods.life/awakening-into-connection/Find us at: https://accidentalgods.life

Conscious evolution could be our next evolutionary step - a radical shift in what it means to be human. In this episode we outline the steps that we believe could lead us on the path to a co-creation of a new future for humanity. We are the accidental gods - all of us - we are the generational era that stands on the brink of species level extinction. For the first time in the history of evolution on this planet, one member of one species could conceivably wipe us all out. We didn't plan this, but it's where we are. What can we do? No problem is solved from the mindset that created it. So we need to think beyond our current expectations of ourselves. We believe that we are ready to make the next evolutionary step. Not a tweak to our DNA, but a change in consciousness - a choice consciously made, to step into all that we can be. So this is what we're here for at accidental gods - to chart one way, to inspire, to bring together all the best of what we can be. This introductory episode puts forward our proposition that conscious evolution is not only timely, it's essential if we're going to survive to the next decade and begins to open the doors to how, collectively, we might get there. This is a paradigm shift, the emergence from a hypercomplex system - and as such, the end point is, by necessity, impossible to imagine from here. But what we can do is shift our mindset so that we are making steady iterative steps towards a different future. As a starting point, we list the four steps we believe are integral to our progress: (Re)Awakening into Connection: Growing into Coherence, Asking for Help (of the other than human world) and Letting go of all that we believe to be true. If you haven't read the Deep Adaptation paper, it's sobering, but useful: http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdfFind us at: https://accidentalgods.life