Welcome back to Behind Greatness. Today we are speaking with Michael Carter who joins us from his home in North Carolina. Many listeners will know him from his frequent appearances over the years on the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and on his appearance in Steven Spielberg’s TV documentary Diaries. Today, Michael is an author and an ordained Interfaith reverend at a Unitarian church. He grew up in Baltimore and worked as an actor in NYC for nearly 30 years. While living in NYC, his life changed in a hurry after a visitation encounter in December of 1989. As he was reeling from an ontological shock trying to make sense of his experience, he met a stranger who recognized that he needed assistance. We talk about his visitation experiences and his openness to the phenomenon. We learn about his fears and how confronting those fears helped him to become more intuitive and compassionate. We discuss how asking questions opens your capacity to bring in knowledge and checks your fears about the things you don’t understand. And as in his own personal case, he urges being emptied of your preconceived notions, before being filled. A fun and easy going conversation with a man unafraid. A message of thanks to Dr Bob Davis (ep151). Michael, Books, including “Alien Scriptures: Extraterrestrials in the Holy Bible”: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B01M15QA9K/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=f8258ed7-b394-4d93-98d4-6a3f5381b2a0&store_ref=ap_rdr&ref_=ap_rdr Bio: https://uusv.org/minister/ IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5117599/ To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.behindgreatness.org. Tax receipt issued to donors. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north

We are joined by Tat Apab’yan Tew (also: Fabian) at his home in Mexico City. Apab’yan is a K’iche’ Maya spiritual guide, a ceremonial historian, a male midwife a lecturer and an author. He was born of a Mexican mother and a Guatemalan father. He grew up in Mexico City without his father – but with a yearning to know his Mayan heritage. His father was an indigenous man of Mayan descent from the mountains of Nawal Ja and he spent his young adult life as a guerilla fighter with rebel forces against foreign corporate control of his homelands. As a young adult, Apab’yan started on his journey to explore the life and existence of the Guatemalan highlands – and he dove in head-first once he arrived in the highlands. Abab’yan recounts his story of reconnection with the Mayan way – of viewing pregnancy, of recognizing both the feminine and the “complementary” and of understanding the consciousness of the developing baby. We discuss the following of Mayan calendar to understand our behaviour and our character, the idea of God, the reading of the blood flow and the pulses of nature and seeing knowledge as a way of healing. Thanks again to Dr. Thomas Verny (ep 121 ) …. and a nod to Indigenous Elder Cat Criger (ep 95) for the initial drumming reference. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Apab’yan: Website: www.mayascience.com Book: The Birth of a Universe: The Maya Science of Pregnancy - The Birth of a Universe: The Maya Science of Pregnancy Consultation and the reading of ones Path, Maya Calendar can be arranged online or in person here - http://www.mayascience.com/offerings/

Thanks for joining us again. We’re back with Stephan, as promised. We highly recommend for you to have a listen to last week’s part 1 before starting this episode. Stephan is not one to disappoint … Stephan continues with his telling of his triple blind remote viewing tests, and his incredibly scintillating story of the bones of Alexander the Great. Stephan also delves into his thoughts about creativity, the importance of the dream state and meditative state for everyone, in particular with scientists and artists … and how important these states were for scientific discovery (Einstein, DaVinci, Descartes). We discuss the matrix of consciousness, physical materialism and its inadequateness, culture and individual choice, ETs and cultural anthropology and his findings from remote viewing the future – the years 2040, 2050 and 2060. Surrender all your preconceptions …. Edoardo (ep 91), Natalie Sudman (ep 97) and Leslie Kean (ep 112) do. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Stephan, Website: www.stephanaschwartz.com Schwartz Report: https://www.schwartzreport.net/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephan-a-schwartz-1785044/

Thanks for joining us again at Behind Greatness. We are joined today by Futurist and Scientist, Stephan Schwartz at his home in Washington State. Stephan is not a theorist and he’s not a philosopher. He’s an experimentalist who works with objectively verifiable data. Stephan was a young hot-shot screenwriter attending parties with the who’s who in the culture scene in NYC in the 1960s, until his life took a curious, fantastic turn. He brings us through a story that includes 5 focused years studying and researching Edgar Cayce's work in Virginia, researching for US Chief of Naval operations, speech writing for an American president, running remote viewing experiments with subjects around the world (starting years before the CIA even began its remote viewing program with Russel Targ) and being one of the first to write about UAPs in the 70s. We learn about his uncovering of important ancient wonders of the world in Egypt in the 1970s using remote/distance viewing protocols for archeological discoveries, about documenting a similar “Sea Quest” project with Leonard Nimoy (of Spock fame) as his narrator and about heading his own funded remote viewing lab, Mobius. And, he’s a novelist.   Important to note that Stephan prefers non-local perception to remote viewing. And you’ll understand why. To be cont’d …    For previous guests re Remote Viewing, check out Russell Targ (ep 80), Dean Radin (ep 122) and Courtney Brown (ep 131). To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Stephan, Website: www.stephanaschwartz.com Schwartz Report: https://www.schwartzreport.net/

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. We’re back with Rey Hernandez, as promised. If you haven’t, please listen to the 1st part of this conversation from last week before starting this one episode. You will thank us. In this 2nd part of our chat we learn about Rey’s extra-ordinary experience of leaving his body while sitting in traffic in his car on a morning in 2013. In fact, this recording is almost 10 years to the day of this pivotal moment in his life. Here we discuss the instructions he was given in that bizarre experience and the meeting of the one and only Mary Rodwell, the Harvard Astrophysicist Rudy Schild and the Astronaut Edgar Mitchell all within 48 hours of this event. We learn about the organization of FREE and the 1st ever scientific study on paranormal experiences – an exercise that involved dozens of scientists and thousands of surveys collected from all over the world. We discuss the fabric of reality, contact modalities, ontological shock, awakening, the mind of God, our reality as an illusion - and parasitic beings.     See also our episode with Dr. Bruce Greyson (ep69) . To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Rey, Consciousness and Contact Research Institute – www.agreaterreality.com Archives of the Impossible (Rice University) - https://impossiblearchives.rice.edu/flash-talk-speakers/rey-hernandez Books: Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness and Contact with Non-Human Intelligence - https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-UFOs-Science-Consciousness-Intelligence/dp/1721088652 The Mind of GOD: A Spiritual-Virtual Reality Model of Consciousness & The Contact Modalities - https://www.amazon.com/Mind-GOD-Spiritual-Virtual-Consciousness-Modalities/dp/B0BC6QXHX4/ref=pd_bxgy_vft_none_sccl_1/146-7571246-5345134?pd_rd_w=z4gLz&content-id=amzn1.sym.26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_p=26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_r=BGRJGKPEN4G2A1856Z7M&pd_rd_wg=GBkZr&pd_rd_r=66175ea3-aaa7-47ad-8724-3d79b58c93a1&pd_rd_i=B0BC6QXHX4&psc=1 Vol 1. A Greater Reality: The New Paradigm of Nonlocal Consciousness, the Paranormal & the Contact Modalities - https://www.amazon.com/Vol-Greater-Reality-Consciousness-Paranormal/dp/B0BFDFL5DX/ref=pd_bxgy_vft_none_sccl_2/146-7571246-5345134?pd_rd_w=z4gLz&content-id=amzn1.sym.26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_p=26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_r=BGRJGKPEN4G2A1856Z7M&pd_rd_wg=GBkZr&pd_rd_r=66175ea3-aaa7-47ad-8724-3d79b58c93a1&pd_rd_i=B0BFDFL5DX&psc=1

Thanks for coming back to Behind Greatness. Today, we are joined by Rey Hernandez in Florida. Rey is the co-founder of the Dr. Edgar Mitchell FREE Foundation, now the Consciousness and Contact Research Institute. Rey was working as an estate tax attorney for the US department of Treasury. He was a self-described high achieving and “over educated materialist atheist” for a long time. And then things changed in 2012 - in a hurry. Rey brings us through 3 of his major supernatural experiences - starting with a joint experience he had with his wife interacting with an energy being in his living room. Rey describes how he called down a UFO (what Rey describes also as a Consciousness Aerial Phenomenon, CAP) that was subsequently witnessed by several others and he provides us a very detailed description of this sighting and experience. His world opened up, his beliefs were shattered and his senses heightened. This brought him to explore and research more phenomena and he consumed material at a high rate of speed over several months, reading 16 hours / day for months on end. We hear about his subsequent connection with a Mary Rodwell in Australia, who helped him connect ultimately with Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a well-known American hero astronaut, the founder of IONS and a leading researcher of consciousness. Rey’s FREE –now the CCRI – is comprised of medical doctors and researchers whose mission is to explore the relationship between consciousness research and the phenomenology of “paranormal experiences”, what CCRI calls The Contact Modalities. Muhammad Ali, John Lennon and David Bowie also get special mention.   And this is only the beginning. We’re not done with Rey. More very soon. We welcome you to listen to Diana Pasulka (ep 142) and Rey’s co-founding partner, Mary Rodwell (ep 149 ) for further background.   Ahhh, 2012 …   To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Rey, Consciousness and Contact Research Institute - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063954405437 Archives of the Impossible (Rice University) - https://impossiblearchives.rice.edu/flash-talk-speakers/rey-hernandez Books: Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness and Contact with Non-Human Intelligence - https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-UFOs-Science-Consciousness-Intelligence/dp/1721088652 The Mind of GOD: A Spiritual-Virtual Reality Model of Consciousness & The Contact Modalities - https://www.amazon.com/Mind-GOD-Spiritual-Virtual-Consciousness-Modalities/dp/B0BC6QXHX4/ref=pd_bxgy_vft_none_sccl_1/146-7571246-5345134?pd_rd_w=z4gLz&content-id=amzn1.sym.26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_p=26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_r=BGRJGKPEN4G2A1856Z7M&pd_rd_wg=GBkZr&pd_rd_r=66175ea3-aaa7-47ad-8724-3d79b58c93a1&pd_rd_i=B0BC6QXHX4&psc=1 Vol 1. A Greater Reality: The New Paradigm of Nonlocal Consciousness, the Paranormal & the Contact Modalities - https://www.amazon.com/Vol-Greater-Reality-Consciousness-Paranormal/dp/B0BFDFL5DX/ref=pd_bxgy_vft_none_sccl_2/146-7571246-5345134?pd_rd_w=z4gLz&content-id=amzn1.sym.26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_p=26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_r=BGRJGKPEN4G2A1856Z7M&pd_rd_wg=GBkZr&pd_rd_r=66175ea3-aaa7-47ad-8724-3d79b58c93a1&pd_rd_i=B0BFDFL5DX&psc=1 

Thanks for tuning in again to Behind Greatness. We are joined by Fil at his home in Toronto for this chat. Fil is an assaggiatore di olio d’oliva. He is one of 31 accredited Olive Oil Tasters in the world (and only 1 of 3 in North America), having trained 4 years at the oldest and most prestigious olive oil tasting school in the world, ONAOO (https://onaoo.it/en/onaoo/). Fil was born in Tuscany, moved with his parents to Venezuela as a boy and immigrated to Canada at 16, knowing little English. He soon discovered a world of music which he dove into as a connection with his new world. By the time he was on his pre-med path at university, he left to live a life of rock and roll in a punk band for over a decade – making music and touring around the world. But in 2007, something else moved him. He tasted an olive oil when in Tuscany, changing his life forever. Being Fil, he closed his eyes and dove in. This time, his connection was with his curiosity about the “almost spiritual” properties of olive oil. We hear about his thoughts on his deep experience with music and the “communion”, and the similarities with the mystical olive grove. No left brain activity needed here. We discuss the “gift exchange” phenomenon, changing culture, bringing Yale University on board and the magic of the first kiss of the harvest. Because of that tree. For music / bass playing reference, see Gary Lachman (ep 124) and for “communion” reference, see our friend John Couch (ep 32) To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Fil, Website: https://www.filbucchino.com/ Documentary: https://www.filbucchino.com/obsessed-with-olive-oil Abandoned Grove: https://www.filbucchino.com/abandoned-grove Yale Olive Institute: https://oliveoilexhibition.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/20190327-5-YOI.pdf Fil rocking it out with Flashlight Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ti1TKCK_Pw FB: @filbucchino IG: @filbucchino

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. Bob joins us from his home in Florida for this chat. Bob grew up in the Bronx across the street from Yankee stadium where he picked up a life long addiction to baseball. For 30 years, he was also addicted to his work: researching and publishing for 30 years on behavioural and neurosensory sciences at State University of New York, bringing him to lecture also in the UK and China. Bob then had three personal extraordinary transformative and mystical experiences and wrote a book on each to help him make sense of what he was experiencing. Today, he’s also working on a documentary (www.consciousnessfilm.info) to help disseminate his message. We had a rich conversation on the most common outcome on people’s lives after having a transformative experience: the dissolution of the ego. We also talk “the God spot” and what God is to him. We talk about confusion. And we talk about his thoughts on the shortcomings of the scientific process to take in the subjective experience and how he’s doing his part with his current work to make this matter again.   Oh, and Mickey Mantle ;)   We recommend ep 135 with Dr. Pim van Lommel, MD re similar discussion on the subjective experience in science – and our recent episode with Mary Rodwell (ep 149). To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.    Bob, Recent publication in Edge Science Journal (p15) “Spiritually Transformative Experience Triggers”: https://p9k188.p3cdn2.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/EdgeScience-52.pdf Documentary Teaser: www.consciousnessfilm.info                                                         Website: www.bobdavisspeaks.com

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. This week, we sit down with Steven at his home in Virginia. Steven was most recently the Chief Historian for NASA before his retirement. As an astronomer and an astrobiologist he has been a prolific thought leader, writer and theorist on cosmology, “cosmotheology” and on the implications of living in a “post biological universe”. We start with learning about the meanings of each and their significance to how we view ourselves in the universe. We discuss his ideas on the supernatural being the natural and his view on how we must stay open to what we think God is. Fascinating. We discuss ETs (a subject that he has been steeped in since his graduate student days) and his view on UFOs and technologically advanced alien civilizations and also his involvement in The Galileo Project with his friend and a former podcast guest and fellow astronomer, Avi Loeb. We also delve a little into the question of whether knowledge is objective, the problem of “stove-piping” in the scientific world and his advice that he gives to his grandchildren about passion. Did we say that he has a planet named after him?   Honourable mentions go out to Avi Loeb (ep105), Br Guy Consolmagno (ep133) and Fr. Nathan Castle (ep140). To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Steve, Website: http://stevenjdick.com/index.html Galileo Project: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/home Cosmotheology: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/61006523.pdf Post Biological Universe: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/hist_culture_cosmos_detail.html Book: Space, Time, and Aliens: Collected Works on Cosmos and Culture - https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030416133 Book: Astrobiology, Discovery, and Societal Impact www.cambridge.org/9781108426763 Book: Classifying the Cosmos. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-10380-4

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. Today we are joined by Mary Rodwell, who lives near Brisbane, Australia. We first learned about Mary through Dr. Diana Pasulka’s book (ep 142). Mary is the founder and Principle of ACERN (Australian Close Encounter Resource Network), an internationally recognized researcher in the UFO and Contact phenomenon. She is also a co-founder of FREE (Foundation for Research into Extra-Terrestrial Encounters) along with Rey Hernandez, astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell and astrophysicist Dr. Rudy Schild. We explore a lot with Mary, and we only just scratch the surface. But in this conversation, we indeed become convinced that she is a “cosmic” Agatha Christie. We discuss intuition, curiosity vs fear and facing phobias. We muse about multi-dimensional information, the humbling fact about information and DNA and listening without judgement. And deliciously enough, we hear about her thoughts on embracing both the guru and the student in each one of us and owning who you really are. And more advice: don’t cast your subjective experience aside to take a back seat in your existence. Own it, explore it. … to be continued. Listeners may want to check out adjacent episodes with Leslie Kean (ep 112), Dr. Avi Loeb (ep 105), Dr. Courtney Brown (ep 131), Ryan Graves (ep 141) & Dr. Diana Pasulka (ep 142). To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Mary, Website: www.acern.com.au Book: The New Human: Awakening to Our Cosmic Heritage -  https://www.amazon.com/New-Human-Awakening-Cosmic-Heritage/dp/0980755514?ref_=ast_author_dp#customerReviews For Fun: https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/save-it-in-dna/ - It is estimated that 1 gram of DNA can hold up to ~215 petabytes (1 petabyte = 1 million gigabytes) of information, although this number fluctuates as different research teams break new grounds in testing the upper storage limit of DNA.