EvolutionFM

“I think we’re going to see a lot of people who are half professional, half shaman in the coming years.” This was a soundbite from the recording of this week’s episode with my guest Jake Housdon. As the expansion of consciousness becomes more popular, I agree with the idea that people are going to live a more integrated experience.   Jake and I are kindred spirits in some ways in that we both spent a decade+ working in startups and are now seeking ways to blend consciousness evolution with being a modern professional.  Jake has an inspiring and courageous story. He was a sales leader in the startup world for the past decade and left that life to buy a retreat center in Peru, embark on becoming a shaman, and create an ecosystem dedicated to serving the conscious professional. In this episode, we talk about his mystical story of how he ended up where he is today and the windy path it took to get there. We went deep on many of the polarities that one can encounter while trying to be an earnest seeker, yet also someone who accomplishes in the working world. As someone who has oscillated on both sides of the pendulum quite a bit, I appreciated his wise perspective. For complete show notes and links to all resources mentioned visit: https://blog.scottbritton.me/s/evolutionfm-podcast  

What’s Unique About The Mental Health of Entrepreneurs? Starting and running a company can be HARD. And when you look at the odds of success, you realize you gotta be a little crazy to do it. Many times during my own experience, I’ve reflected on how if I knew how hard it was, I’m not sure I would have done it. I’m finding the same thing can be said about embarking on the path of spiritual evolution btw! Apparently, I like hard shit. So what is it about entrepreneurs that make them do the things they do? Are they fundamentally different from the average bear? And what implications does this have for their mental health and well-being? This is the nature of my conversation with today’s guest Dr. Michael Freeman. Dr. Freeman serves as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and as a Mentor in the Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF. With support from the Kauffman Foundation, Dr. Freeman has conducted extensive research into the mental health of entrepreneurs. Freeman studies issues related to entrepreneur mental health in collaboration with colleagues from U.C. Berkeley, the Gallup Organization, and other universities. Additionally, he was the founding Chief Medical Officer at U.S. Behavioral Health and the Founder of Econa, the global center of excellence for entrepreneur mental wellness. For complete show notes and links to all resources mentioned visit: https://blog.scottbritton.me/s/evolutionfm-podcast

I love synchronicity. Not just because it’s fun when it happens but because it serves as a clue to the fact that there is something more going on here than the story we’ve been told about reality. The answer to what causes synchronicity will vary depending on who you ask. I have my own ideas, but I wanted to see who out there has done extensive research on the topic. This is how I came across today’s guest, Dr. Bernard Beitman. After studying at Yale and Stanford, Dr. Beitman went on to become the chair of the psychology and neuroscience program at The University of Missouri. He has also published multiple books, including Meaningful Coincidences, and started a non-profit called the Coincidence Project which seeks to better understand and educate the world on why and how coincidences occur. For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

Altered states of consciousness are going mainstream. This episode is a deep dive on the startup ecosystem with my friend Greg Kubin who an investor a Psymed Ventures. We recorded this conversation as a followup to a longer post covering the startup ecosystem related to expanding human consciousness. Startups will play a key role in enabling and expanding access to altered states of consciousness. The types of companies come in many flavors – hardware, software, and community. Technology could even result in accessing completely new states of consciousness. But first… how do we define consciousness? Most humans live in a state of normal waking consciousness – i.e. being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and physical surroundings. For most people, this is seemingly all there is to reality, maybe  except for dreams. In contrast, altered (or “alternative”) states of consciousness enable us to experience additional levels of awareness, perceptions, memories, thinking, emotions, sense of time, place, and self-control (source). In the process, they expand our understanding of the potentials of reality and the human experience. There are a variety of reasons people seek altered states: improved mental health, physical healing, creative breakthroughs, and spiritual connectedness. There are also risks – without proper support, altered states can be destabilizing. “Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness” - William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast  

Consciousness is subjective. This means, for the most part, we only know what it feels like inside our own inner space. So how do we move beyond our limitations if our only reference point is our subjective experience? Well, one way is to have a map of all the different potentialities available to humans and clear directives on how to experience them. This is the subject of today’s episode with guest Trish Blain. Trish is the founder of Nonordinary and the author of The Four Forces book. She first got on my radar with her work helping previous podcast guest Alexander Beiner who she worked to navigate the extended state DMT trials. In this conversation, I think Trish stimulates some interesting ideas around how we can move beyond our limitations and then look to embody these ecstatic states in union with others. I think one thing that resonated with me is how even amidst many people doing their inner work, more expansive states of being are often investigated and understood in isolation. This presents a challenge when we are looking to co-create more expansively. One way Trish proposes that we overcome this is the creation of a shared understanding and map of human experience. This is the crux of a lot of her work with The Four Forces framework and the Edges Map.  For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

What is happening in the world of neuroscience and meditation? That is the subject of today’s episode with Katie Devaney who is a researcher at University of California Center for Psychedelic Research and Co-founder of Berkeley Alembic. As an independent organization, Berkeley Alembic has more autonomy to perform research on experiences that highly experienced meditators have, yet might not match the immediate criteria of fighting disease.  For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

I went on a men’s retreat a few months ago called Junto and realized that there were some major growth opportunities for me in the outer expression of a lot of my inner work. What this retreat made me realize is that I’ve spent less time on learning how to effectively communicate and express these experiences in many relationships in an elegant and authentic way. Today’s guest is Andrew Horn -- the creator of the Junto retreat experience, founder of the tech company Tribute, and a leadership coach & facilitator.  In this conversation, we talk about relational leadership and the practicalities of what that looks like in our day to day experience. A big takeaway for me is that even when we work on our consciousness, we often don’t have many tools we need to be fully expressed as humans. Andrew shares many of his favorite tools that he uses in his own life and the people we work with. For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/publish/podcasting/s/evolutionfm-podcast

The study of the DMT experience by standard only takes around 10 minutes. What if we could extend the duration of these experiences and get into a deeper exploration? Enter DMTx. In 2018, researchers kicked off a study to observe participants in an extended DMT state experience to delve deeper and conventional limits. Today’s guest is Alexander Beiner, one of the 9 incredibly brave participants who embarked on this pioneering inner exploration. What did he find?   For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/publish/podcasting/s/evolutionfm-podcast

We, humans, are a funny bunch.  Sometimes it feels like we think we have it all figured out only to later understand how the way we’ve been doing things needs some rethinking. You may have heard of the term “regenerative” in various contexts. I most often came across it in relation to agriculture. But the concept can be applied to all the systems in our society including business. Today’s guest is Rudy De Waele, the founder of RegenerateX, UnconditionalMen, and Heart Masters. He has been working with leaders and organizations across the world to transform themselves and the systems we find ourselves in.   For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/publish/podcasting/s/evolutionfm-podcast

Today’s guest is Angelo Dilullo, the creator of Simply Always Awake and author of the book Awake: It’s Your Turn. When I’ve read about very enlightened or realized beings, I always wonder what it must feel like to experience reality through their eyes. What is the texture of the inner experience? This was one reason I was thrilled to have Angelo on the show to get the background of his journey and understand what his current experience feels like. Angelo does a fantastic job outlining the awakening process in the context of his story. You can check out more of his work here: https://www.youtube.com/@SimplyAlwaysAwake https://simplyalwaysawake.com/ I am also teaching a 5-week training program called Guided on cultivating the emergent wisdom we describe in this episode starting 5/31/23. To learn more about the Guided 5-week intuition course, you can find full details here: https://guidedintuition.co/ For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast