Spirit Gym with Paul Chek

The state of public education is a mess. At the heart of it is a real struggle about a fundamental question: How much tech should our kids be exposed to daily in the classroom?
Contrary to what parents have been told by public schools nationwide, there is no single one-size-fits-all solution for kids and that includes the use or non-use of tech tools like artificial intelligence (AI) in classrooms.
Also, did those high-tech school districts warn you your kid’s basic math skills would erode so much that she/he would be tethered to a tech device for the rest of their lives?
Priten Soundar-Shah, author of Ethical Ed Tech: How Educators Can Lead on AI and Digital Safety in K-12, shares a better way forward based on the intelligent and deliberate use of technology that fosters better engagement in our public schools this week on Spirit Gym. 
Learn more about Priten and his much-needed work in the non-profit sector at his website. Listen to his podcast, Margin of Thought with Priten, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to them. You’ll find him on social media via Instagram, Linkedin and TikTok.
Read the opening chapter of Priten’s book, Ethical Ed Tech, for free at this website. Buy his book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Bookshop and upload your receipt, and you’ll receive several free resources, including an exclusive bonus chapter and video course.
Timestamps
7:39 Living the life of a non-profit entrepreneur, tech tool-builder and teacher.
19:14 The conversations about the role of tech in schools moved from teachers to big tech companies.
26:03 Reading a book on how to read inspired the name for Priten’s podcast.
32:26 How do know what red is if you don’t experience it?
44:36 How do you persuade kids to eat vegetables and learn things too?
50:19 Making things happen faster and easier — what tech does best — is often not the best environment for learning.
58:00 Paul’s crashing conversation with Claude about generating faulty AI art.
1:02:47 There is no one-size-fits-all solution for improving education and that includes the use/non-use of tech like AI.
1:11:40 Gamified engagement versus learning engagement.
1:18:06 Are we so dependent on technology that your kid’s basic math skills have been “downloaded” to a digital calculator on a cell phone?
1:25:30 The case studies featured in Ethical Ed Tech provide scenarios and options for the ethical use of tech in schools, not absolute solutions.
1:33:17 One unintended consequence of tech dominance in schools: A fixation on measuring and controlling every aspect of them (including reading and test scores).
1:46:11 There’s no community consensus on the purpose of schooling.
1:53:36 The real-world limits on how much schools can solve external factors like personal flourishing, contributing to the world and how a kid feels about herself/himself away from school.
2:03:21 Priten hopes schools will deal with AI faster than they did cell phones (10-15 years).
Resources
AI and the Future of Education: Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Priten Soundar-Shah
Pedagogy Futures
Academy 4 Social Civics 
The work of Confucius
Paul’s podcast conversations with Dr. Jared Horvath and Elizabeth Nelson
The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids’ Learning — And How To Help Them Thrive Again by Jared Horvath
The Living Soil and the Haughley Experiment by Lady Evelyn Barbara Balfour
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
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At age 13, Dr. John Demartini left home after being told by the “experts” around him that his life would never amount to much. People claimed his physical and learning challenges were too much to overcome…
Nearly six decades later, John is living the life none of those “experts” could’ve ever imagined, as a world-renown teacher who helps his students come to a greater understanding of human behavior and maximizing their potential.
John shares his amazing journey from his early days as teenage surfer without a home, then explains why he gave up the self-help movement — it’s a moral trap — and reveals the importance of asking the right questions of ourselves and others this week on Spirit Gym.
Find out more about John and his work on his website and on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and YouTube. Listen to his podcast, The Demartini Show, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to them.
Also, John invites Spirit Gym listeners to take advantage of some free gifts:
· Download his 7 Steps to Expand to the Next Level of Empowerment workbook.
· Watch John’s inspiring presentation, Awakening Your Astronomical Vision.
· Complete the Demartini Value Determination Process, a 13-step process that helps you determine your highest values or priorities in life.
· Take his master classes, Increase Your Deserve Level and Finally Get What You Want and Discover The Hidden Order and Its Power to Transform Your Life.
Timestamps
5:34 John leaves home at age 13 to hitchhike cross-country and surf.
8:31 John’s life-changing encounter with Paul Bragg.
19:59 From learning-challenged to speaking to University of Houston students daily.
35:20 “Everything that's going on our life is on the way to help us be our most magnificent self.”
46:00 Lean into your uniqueness and authenticity with help from your teachers.
53:29 The Demartini method.
1:01:45 Holy curiosity.
1:13:32 “I really believe all of the randomness that we have is missing information.”
1:22:29 “The Master lives in a world of transformation, not the illusion of gain, loss, pleasure, pain or polarities.”
1:27:39 John’s research leads him to give up the self-help movement.
1:39:32 “Quality questions are ones that make us aware of what we're unconscious of when we're interpreting things in this polarized way.”
1:41:47 What is depression?
1:54:56 True science and true religion mirror each other, but with different languages.
2:03:25 John’s definition of evil: An incomplete awareness of a mental construct.
2:12:59 Good and evil: The only labels we impose on things that are exaggerations rather than synthesis.
2:15:41 The soulmate question.
2:31:05 “The first thing I tell my students: Whatever you perceive in me, let’s find it in you.”
Resources
Essentials of Emotional Intelligence by Dr. John Demartini
Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory: The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics by P.A.M. Durac
The C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston
Dr. John Demartini’s heated conversation with Aubrey Marcus on YouTube
The Science of Mind: The Complete 1926 edition by Ernest Holmes
The Law of Eristic Escalation explained by Dr. John Demartini
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
The work of Jack LaLanne, Buddy Miles, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Claude Shannon, Frank Tipler, Stephen Wolfram, Vera Rubin, Sri Aurobindo, Stephen Hawking, Edward Edinger and Epictetus
The Schrödinger equation
Rudolf Clausius and the second law of thermodynamics
The Boltzmann equation
Heraclitis and the Logos
What is Life? by Erwin Schrodinger
Geocentrism
The Rigveda
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind by Richard Bucke
Gate control theory by Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall
The Secret (film) on YouTube
The Trans-Planckian problem
Paul’s podcast conversation with Sean O’Laoire
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
Spirit Gym
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Have you been running away from your shadow self for so long you no longer remember why?
Too many people attempt to escape from their shadow selves out of fear and a lack of understanding that acknowledging their shadow is a structural feature of an individuated psyche and a reservoir of vital energy that can help you grow into the adult you’re meant to be.
If you’ve been struggling to find a path forward, Paul shares the benefits of shadow work and explains why doing it consistently over a lifetime can transform your life this week on Spirit Gym.
Check out the PDF Paul created that accompanies this episode to help you better understand shadow work.
Timestamps
5:00 True shadow work is a lifetime process that never ends.
15:08 Managing your shadow work by better managing your health and breathing.
21:47 Your shadow: The price of having a definitive identity.
28:35 “The pull between consciousness and shadow is what makes psychological growth possible at all.”
38:16 “If you're not working with your shadow consciously with legitimate spiritual intent and doing the work properly, it will project itself outward.”
44:03 The collective unconscious.
50:43 Doing your shadow work goes a long way toward lessening your judgement of others.
56:03 Hyperstition.
1:03:27 To think holistically, always ask yourself, “Is it true?”
1:11:06 What is your secret story?
1:21:54 The shadow: A hyperstitional structure.
1:31:36 Break hyperstitional patterns with these exercises.
1:44:20 You can’t have consciousness without a positive and a negative.
1:49:15 Your stories are connected to events and the shadow work you do.
Resources
Ego and Archetype by Edward Edinger
The numinous
The work of Swami Vivekananda, Carl Jung, Dean Radin, Dr. Larry Dossey, Murray Stein, Edgar Cayce and Nick Land
How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!
When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone
Paul’s podcast conversations with James Hollis, Jonathan Bluestein and James Carse
Paul’s solocast on Lucifer, Christ and Ahriman
Nonviolent Communication: The Basics As I Know and Use Them by Wayland Myers
The Evolution of Love From Quarks to Culture: The Rise of Evolutionary Relationships in Response to the Meta-Crisis by Dr. Marc Gafni
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
Spirit Gym
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Imagine you and your teenager are sitting down for a nice meal and she/he asks, “What do you know about depression?” and you’re stumped for an answer.
Faced with that question, D. (Doug) Earl Johnston set out to find the answer and, along the way, identified 271 additional and distinct emotional states that formed the basis of his latest book, Choosing Emotions: Thinking with Your Head and Acting with Your Heart.
Doug shares what he learned about the amazing array of emotions all of us feel and how they protect us this week on Spirit Gym.
Learn more about Doug and his work at his website and on social media via Instagram. 
Timestamps
4:58 Doug’s daughter asked him a question he couldn’t answer: What do you know about depression?
10:42 Identifying 272 distinct emotional states through famous quotes.
21:41 Our emotions are tools that protect us.
32:15 The fundamental misunderstandings people have about emotions.
43:15 A consilience.
47:35 Name it, blame it and tame it.
56:30 “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”
1:06:35 Where do you draw the line between an emotion, mood, condition, pattern or life?
1:23:54 “Can you change a default emotion?”
1:33:38 Doug’s reckoning with ego.
1:39:05 Vocabulary and emotions.
1:48:03 The domains of the head, heart and gut.
1:52:55 One of Paul’s guiding principles he learned from a student.
Resources
Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brené Brown
The work of Rollo May, J.K. Rowling, Eckhart Tolle, Dr. Antonio Damasio, Jonathan Heidt, Daniel Kahneman, Niels Bohr, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Kettering, Noam Chomsky, Dan Siegel, Stanley Krippner, Edgar Cayce and Sir Winston Churchill
Paul’s podcast conversations with Rollin McCraty and Keith Witt
How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Barrett
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath
Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Karol Truman
The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk 
Tao Te Ching: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
Spirit Gym
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Once upon a time not so very long ago, artificial intelligence (AI) was a product of speculative science fiction, especially in films from Metropolis to Blade Runner.
Today, AI has so infiltrated our daily lives, the thought of not having access to Google or other AI-driven apps on our mobile phones and computers scares the crap out of a lot of people. 
Paul continues his investigation into AI with able assistance from author, Silicon Valley survivor and depth psychologist Elizabeth Nelson who explores the wide gulf between human and machine this week on Spirit Gym.
Check out Elizabeth’s essays and individual coaching groups, watch her video presentations and read her essays on her website.
Timestamps
7:54 Defining technology and machines.
12:05 Artificial intelligence, large language models (LLMs) or large language machines?
19:12 “Technology is not neutral.”
23:48 Confusing data and information with real knowledge.
29:50 The intrusion of machine language into our humanity.
37:45 The danger of LLMs emulating humans.
51:23 Exploring the gulf between human and cyborg/machine in books and films like Blade Runner.
57:23 When describing what AI does, calling it making crap up or AI slop is better than hallucinating.
1:08:26 Are we turning an it like AI into a being?
1:14:15 The irony of some people celebrating the end times while others turn to transhumanism.
1:38:18 Can you leave your tech toys at home for a week without feeling anxiety?
1:49:48 Why is it so important for humanity to understand very clearly what reality is?
Resources
Depth Psychology, Myth and Artificial Intelligence: Soul and the Machine, edited by Jason Batt and Jonathan Erickson
The Art of Jungian Couples Therapy: An Introduction by Elizabeth Nelson and Anthony Delmedico
The Art of Inquiry: A Depth Psychology Perspective by Elizabeth Nelson and Joseph Coppin
Psyche’s Knife: Archetypal Explorations of Love and Power by Elizabeth Nelson
Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies
Understanding Media: The Extension of Man by Marshall McLuhan and Lewis Lapham 
Elizabeth’s Psyche, Soma, Cyborg course at the Pacifica Graduate Institute
The Ship of Theseus (Theseus’s Paradox)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Exteroception
Elysium
The work of James Hillman and Edward Edinger
Paul’s podcast conversation with B. Earl
DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral by Leonard Horowitz
Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
The Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World’s Religions by Huston Smith
The Social Dilemma on Netflix
Elizabeth’s presentation during the recent Soul and the Machine webinar on the International Society of Mythology website
Find more resources for this episode on our website.
Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear Music
Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
Wild Pastures
Pique Life
Spirit Gym
CHEK Institute
We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.