Behind Greatness by Inspire North

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.

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. We sit down with Angela Maxwell as she prepares her next global walking trip from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. After entering her 30s, Angela started to feel a unique “pull”. So she answered it. She left her business, with zero know-how on pitching a tent or starting a fire, and zero athletic abilities :). On a day in 2013 she embarked on a global walking journey on her own, leaving her home in central Oregon – to return back home over 6 years later. In answering her pull, she recounts stories about almost dying in the Australian Outback, catching dengue fever in Vietnam, terrifying sandstorms in Mongolia and sheep herding in Sardegna. We explore some of Angela’s insights she absorbed along the way: listening deeply, feeling the world, “crafting out of newness” and weeping on an Italian mountain-side. We discuss her experience with physical and psychological fences, with having a figureoutable-mindset and with absorbing the terror and anger in the present moment to discovering the authentic self. We’re all Clark Kents – but when you are Superman where do you exist? To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Angela, Website: https://www.shewalkstheearth.com/ TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al5e-pKlEss EURONEWS: https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/03/08/choose-to-be-courageous-meet-the-amazing-woman-who-west-ish-walked-around-the-world IG: @angelamariemaxwell FB: https://www.facebook.com/SheWalkstheEarth/ TW: @AngelaMarieMax Coaching: https://www.shewalkstheearth.com/coaching.html?fbclid=IwAR0Usfr0cjhbywsUuvTJyltnhzwI57jW9nD8tBgHeUE9ldVgU3sESjLBFt0

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. Today we chat with John B Alexander from his home in Las Vegas. John is a decorated, retired Infantry Officer who started his military career as an 18 year old parachuting out of planes, to active tour in Vietnam as Special Forces Commander to working at the Pentagon and advising the DOD, CIA and the White House. John always had an interest in exploring the non-material and this curiosity brought him through a unique path starting in the early 80s after he wrote an “edgy” article in the Military Review, while working at the Pentagon. The Washington Post picked up the story and wrote about the “Voodoo Warriors of the Pentagon” – and this brought him a lot of public attention. We talk about John’s experience in advocating for non-lethal weapons and researching psychic abilities for military applications. John’s experience is profound and wide-ranging in these fields and as such has been exposed to a lot of things that are “not supposed to happen”. We discuss the fundamentality of consciousness, the limitations of the western world’s view of time and of the spirit world, his research of near death experiences and remote viewing, spoon bending, skeptics vs. debunkers and the reality of UFOs. John is retired from the military, but he’s far from retired from his researching of our connectedness within the universe … he’s a man always striving to peer behind the veil of illusion and taking notes.   To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.    John, Website: http://www.johnbalexander.com/ IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1989655/

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. Today, we sit down with Sue Ludwig in Cincinnati. We get right into it, talking about babies. Sue is the founder of the National Association of Neonatal Therapists. She is an occupational therapist with an expertise in neo-natal care by vocation. She saw several years ago that there was very little attention paid to any standards and mentoring for the caring and development of new born human beings. So, she went about creating a national body that took this on and all the “soft medicine” around the importance of listening to the baby in its first days/weeks of life. We talk about the direct connection that the newborn has to all things important in our adult lives: community, love and creativity. We discuss the perils of disassociation with patients in the hospital experience, the importance of checking your baggage outside the car, how our little baby bodies take notes that define sensory perception for life AND how being outside has become a lost art. Listen in as well on Sue’s thoughts on why babies teach us that there is no end.   “You can take the eagerness and feelings to create, with you”. Amen.   A warm thank you to Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor.   To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Sue, NANT Website: https://neonataltherapists.com BOOK – Tiny Humans, Big Lessons: https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Humans-Big-Lessons-Intention/dp/1774580977/ref=sr_1_1 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sueludwig/

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. We chat today with Jonathan, from his home in the country in Nova Scotia (Atlantic Canada). Jonathan is an accomplished comedic actor, writer, director and producer – having started in the entertainment business while still in highschool. By the time he starting developing his popular character J-Roc on the Trailer Park Boys in the early 2000s, Jonathan had long been diligently building his “Swiss army knife” cache of skills in the business. And it’s from this well that we draw oodles of wisdom, wit and introspection from Jonathan with this conversation. We learn the grounding effects of starting your day with shovelling poop, owning the things you don’t know and taking criticism as teaching moments. We discuss the universal magic of silly and its victimless crimes, the power of “chameleon” as a verb and the tight link between joy and pain. We have a good time discussing funny and where his particular sweet spot of funny is – and why. We also hear about the literal (and metaphorical) choice he made while in Los Angeles between a casino commercial and a dentist visit that brought him back to understanding what he was actually made of … a man living in the quiet, creating, and visiting the noise.   Jonathan: a “thank you”. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Jonathan, Production Company: https://www.canadiancontentstudios.com/ Website: www.FilmPrints.ca Podcast - Taggart & Torrens: https://www.taggartntorrens.ca/ Book – Canadianity: https://www.amazon.ca/Canadianity-Tales-North-Strong-Freezing/dp/B07BQG5BBT/ Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868474/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. Today we sit with Alain Menard, who co-founded The Green Beaver Company with his wife Karen Clark, a chemist. The Green Beaver Company is a pioneer in North America in naturally-based personal care products. The company breathes the country air for its creative inspiration, the same air that Alain grew up with in rural Ontario, Canada, close to the Quebec border. Their business was ignited by the desire to start a family and providing the best kind of natural environment for their future child. So Alain and his wife applied their scientific chops to create a new life for themselves. We talk 3-way balance, self-sustained living, the state of creation and where that brings him. We discuss tricking the mind with doing something at the opposite of what your thoughts are bringing you. We learn about Alain’s philosophy about fun and connection, about building a cabin when you are suffering from cabin fever - and carving spoons, just because.   This chat was like a long walk in nature. Breathe in, and create. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Alain, Website: https://greenbeaver.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-menard-38a8b311/ Fromagerie: https://www.fromageriedestroisrapides.com/