Who Gnows? with Matthew E. Smith

Can a book doctor help us understand how to make good stories of our lives? Is there a critical missing part to our national story which must be told to save our character? Find out today with book doctor, Sara Stibitz.  

Sarah began her life as a legal investigator but a nagging feeling kept telling her something about her life was all wrong. A small voice would urge her to write and she'd find herself sneaking The Office references into her research to jazz things up a bit. This would always make her smile. The more she listened to the voice, the more it became clear that she needed to travel somewhere, anywhere. There was one problem: that meant she'd have to turn down a promotion and disappoint her professional mentor. 

Answering the call lead Sarah on a journey to South America including Bolivia, Ecuador, and a stint in a Brazilian hospital. Upon her return, she discovered her adventure had just begun. Sarah continued her journey writing about her adventures for a friend's magazine. This lead to opportunities to write for newspapers and major publications like The Des Moines Register and Harvard Business Review. Soon, she was helping entrepreneurs and aspiring authors pen their own stories. In the process, Sarah became a highly sought after, professional book doctor. On this episode of Who Gnows? Sarah answers questions like:

• Does everyone have a book in them?
• What is the heroine's journey and why is it so important?
• Are there elements shared by good stories and good lives?
• Can you outsource your life story?
• How do you cultivate empathy for characters in your life's story?

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What can a structural geologist teach us about the formation of mountains, Nasca lines, and lost Raritan & Ethiopian ruins in New Jersey? 

Turns out, A LOT! 

Geoscientist Dr. Gregory Herman shares his research gathered from years studying impact tectonics to show how catastrophic events have rapidly changed our planet's landscape. He shows how satellite imagery has changed what we know about our planet's history. He dives into the Nasca people and how climate change contributed to developing the Nasca lines for agricultural purposes. We also explore an ancient little know community of Raritan "kings" near Round & Cushetunk Mountains, New Jersey, that may change what we know about some of the earliest settlers of New Jersey. 

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What can we learn from visionary artists, therapeutic psychedelic researchers, dream clinic operators and Tibetan monks about what lies beyond our day-to-day experience of reality?  Can drugs like MDMA and LSD help to cure victims suffering from PTSD and alcoholism?  Did prophets of old posses differing physiologies than ours due to less artificial light? Did this allow them to experience reality in a different way than we do today? What is the third eye and can it be healed/improved? Are there predicable stages the soul or consciousness experiences after death? Is it possible to overcome your fear by "dying before you die" so that you can finally truly live? 

Questions like these have driven writer and neuroscience researcher David Jay Brown to explore the edges of consciousness research. In the search for answers, he's interviewed Stephen Hawking, Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, Noam Chomsky, Ram Dass, Albert Hoffman, Jack Kevorkian, George Carlin, Sasha Shulgin, Deepak Chopra, Alex Grey, Jerry Garcia, Stanislav Grof and John Lilly.  David's personal, consciousness research projects have included work on deep-brain stimulation, lucid dreaming as well as co-authoring the book, "Detox with Oral Chelation". In a content-filled hour, we explore all these topics as well as David's most recent book "Women of Visionary Art".

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“You are entitled to know that two entities occupy your body. One of these entities is motivated by and responds to the impulse of fear. The other is motivated by and responds to the impulse of faith. Will you be guided by faith or will you allow fear to overtake you?” ― Napoleon Hill, Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success

EMDR therapy was discovered by accident by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D while walking in a park when "she realized that eye movements appeared to decrease the negative emotion associated with her own distressing memories. She assumed that eye movements had a desensitizing effect, and when she experimented with this she found that others also had the same response to eye movements. It became apparent however that eye movements by themselves did not create comprehensive therapeutic effects and so Shapiro added other treatment elements, including a cognitive component, and developed a standard procedure that she called Eye Movement Desensitization (EMD). (From History of EMDR)

On this episode, I discuss how part of my personal journey of self discovery has included healing from trauma. This led me to try EMDR therapy which yielded not only the healing I always believed was possible, but to a discovery about the nature of mind itself. That discovery completely changed the way I see the relationship between the mind, body, soul and spirit and even my idea of who we are underneath it all. 

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"Wilderness Makes You Better". This is the simple idea behind Steve Dubbeldam's company, Wilderness Collective; featuring a white-knuckled, outdoor, motorcycle adventure which forces you to overcome your fears and get back to nature. But what is it about adventure that is so vital to the human experience? Has our climate-controlled existence made us soft? Do we need to find more struggle or maybe do we just to unplug?  

On this episode, I chat with Steve who has been called the "Tony Robbins of the Sequoias." We talk about his early adventures buying a $500 catamaran off Craiglist and sailing the foggy waters of the Channel Islands. We discuss hitting the mental reset button and the meditative aspect which comes from a 4-day motorcycle journey (which may be one of the best mindfulness exercises I've had). We also discuss the importance of cultivating a sense of adventure and the need to create the space for long-form conversations which are sorely missing in a modern world. All this and much more in this week's episode.

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Why do spiritual types always seem to want to talk about consciousness? What's all the fuss about? Should we care? Are God and consciousness somehow linked to each other? In a shorter episode than usual, Matthew dives into a brief explanation of why consciousness is so critical to many of the world's religions and why many of these episodes have questions surrounding changing and noticing different states of consciousness.

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He lives in a sprinter van called the Black Pearl. He does strategic planning for the military. He is a one man A-Team for people with medical research needs. In his spare time, he works to discover the secrets to longevity so he can reduce suffering and enhance joy in others. In spite of the fact that he provides consulting for high-ranking military personnel & PhD's, he's been one credit hour short of a degree for over a decade now- and likes it that way. And, he may be one of the smartest, caring guys I've ever met.

On this episode, I get the chance to chat with my friend Nick Potter. We discuss Nick's current topics of interest which include: longevity research and how to use diet, breathing and Chinese exercises to train your nervous system.  Nick explains the difference between living a happy life and a meaningful life and why understanding the difference is key. He talks about the mistakes most people make when doing visualization exercises as well as what Napoleon Hill meant when he described Mastermind principles. And that is only a fraction of what we dive in to on this week's episode.

What does it mean to be enlightened? Is it a place where you arrive or is it a state that comes and goes? Why do such moments of clarity, insight and lucidity not always last? Is it possible to wake up but not become permanently enlightened? Is it a good idea to try to pry open your 'third eye' without setting an emotional foundation first?

In this episode, I ride solo, exploring the phenomena of awakening, enlightenment and third-eye opening experiences as observed and described by celebrities and comedians: Bill Hicks, Bill Murray and Jim Carrey as a means of understanding our own experiences in these realms. 

The week before he died, Hicks penned the following:

“I was born William Melvin Hicks on December 16, 1961 in Valdosta, Georgia. Ugh. Melvin Hicks from Georgia. Yee Har! I already had gotten off to life on the wrong foot. I was always "awake," I guess you'd say. Some part of me clamoring for new insights and new ways to make the world a better place. All of this came out years down the line, in my multitude of creative interests that are the tools I now bring to the Party. Writing, acting, music, comedy. A deep love of literature and books. Thank God for all the artists who've helped me. I'd read these words and off I went – dreaming my own imaginative dreams. Exercising them at will, eventually to form bands, comedy, more bands, movies, anything creative. This is the coin of the realm I use in my words – Vision. On June 16, 1993 I was diagnosed with having "liver cancer that had spread from the pancreas." One of life's weirdest and worst jokes imaginable. I'd been making such progress recently in my attitude, my career and realizing my dreams that it just stood me on my head for a while. "Why me!?" I would cry out, and "Why now!?" Well, I know now there may never be any answers to those particular questions, but maybe in telling a little about myself, we can find some other answers to other questions. That might help our way down our own particular paths, towards realizing my dream of New Hope and New Happiness. Amen. I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.

In our conversation today with self-described artist, theologian, atheist, raconteur and student of technical theater, Dr. Kent Forbes, we ask the following questions: 

• What about the teachings and life of Jesus still intrigue an atheist?
• Is it possible to believe in God and still be an atheist? 
• Was there anything to his creeping suspicions from childhood that there may be more to Jesus' story than met the eye? 
• How does any of this tie into his research into simulation theory and process theology? 
• Is it possible to come up with a practical, working philosophy which is easy to understand, benefits people immediately and is compatible with every religion without being a threat? 

We also discuss his movies, Escape! From the Cult of Materialism, The Simulation Hypothesis and Earthism Rising. We explore the rift between science and religion, how it originated and potential solutions. We examine the effects of materialism both on modern Christianity and simulation theorists. We dive into the concept of creativity as a fundamental force in the universe and how it may even be primary to God. Before we wrap up, we touch on Platonism in the teachings of Jesus and the role of faith in understanding miracles. 

John Lennon famously stated, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."  In the case of my friend David Goldstein, he was planning on using his singing talents to become an opera singer or potentially a cantor (similar to a rabbi). That was until his life was derailed with a cancer diagnosis. Unhappy with some of the answers he was getting within his own faith, he went looking for practical applications for dealing with suffering and found them in the Buddhist tradition.  After recovering from cancer, he spent time studying under Zen monks and considered a career in hospice before his brother's untimely death forced yet another career change into the world of politics.

In this episode we explore questions surrounding  suffering,  the ready availability of esoteric religious traditions in a modern world which had formerly been kept secret, the pro's and con's of religious hierarchies, dreams as a spiritual pursuit and much, much more.