Andy, drawing from his 12-step recovery background, describes spirituality as a relationship with a higher power understood personally, sharing that his connection takes shape through Christian symbolism rooted in his upbringing. He emphasizes that this framework is not exclusive, but a language through which he experiences alignment, meaning, and a sense that everything in existence is placed in right relationship. Central to his path is humility—learning to recognize value in all people and to move beyond ego-driven identity.

The conversation expands into spiritual awakening as both gradual and sudden, drawing on William James’ distinction between 'educational' awakenings and sudden insight, with participants noting that suffering, hindsight, and breakthrough moments all contribute to a growing awareness of interconnectedness.

Themes of non-separation emerge across traditions, including Zen and Advaita Vedanta, where suffering is understood as rooted in the illusion of a separate self, and healing arises through re-experiencing unity—both psychologically and physically in the body.

• Humility as a balance between recognizing higher forces and maintaining personal agency

• The idea that all relationships—including with the divine—are reciprocal rather than one-directional

• A Sufi perspective, influenced by Inayat Khan, describing the universe as moving toward love, harmony, and beauty

• The concept of a 'pull of the future' shaping evolution alongside past causes

• Parallels to scientific ideas of uncertainty and unfolding potential within the universe

Joel offers a complementary perspective on karma, rooted in mystical traditions, emphasizing that every thought, action, and intention generates corresponding effects that return 'measure for measure,' shaping future experience. He frames reality as an interplay between seen and unseen dimensions, where intentionality—especially loving-kindness—acts as a generative force.

The panel reflects on the interplay of karma, grace, randomness, and free will, suggesting that human life unfolds within a dynamic system of influence and choice, where individuals both shape and are shaped by experience.

Closing reflections highlight the importance of shared inquiry and spiritual community, with participants emphasizing that these conversations create space for meaningful exploration beyond solitary practice.

The discussion concludes with a Zen teaching offered by Joel, pointing to the enduring challenge of ethical living—avoiding harm and cultivating virtue—not as abstract ideals, but as practices that must be lived moment to moment.

Alchemical Dialogues and Unraveling Religion co-hosts Joel Lesses and Henry Cretella convene a panel exploring spirituality, recovery, philosophy, and science through lived experience, centered on the theme of transformation as an embodied, ongoing process.

Ben, a therapist and former addiction counselor, reflects on his journey through trauma, psychosis, and recovery, including an ego death experience that reframed his life through the lens of rebirth. He describes moving from feeling unsafe in his body to cultivating grounding through breath and meditation.

Andrew, trained in physics, shares his experiences with bipolar disorder, atheism, and long-term substance use, ultimately finding recovery and a return to a sense of inner peace, identifying addiction as an attempt to fill a deeper spiritual void.

Rich Grego, a philosopher and Professor of religion and metaphysics, introduces his scholarly background while emphasizing his continued existential questioning, highlighting the gap between intellectual understanding and lived spiritual experience.

Henry Cretella, a psychiatrist influenced by Inayat Khan, describes a syncretic approach to spirituality, drawing from multiple traditions while seeking a unifying thread, and challenges the idea of 'pure' traditions by pointing to nature as inherently evolving and interconnected.

Joel builds on this by referencing Eihei Dogen’s idea of 'many languages, one tongue,' suggesting that different traditions express a shared source, and introduces the central inquiry 'What am I?' as a core spiritual question.

The discussion explores addiction as existential longing, reframing the restless search for meaning as a potential catalyst for transformation, and examines the relationship between humans and nature, questioning whether any true separation exists.

Joel emphasizes language as a uniquely human capacity that shapes reality, while Henry dissolves the distinction between humans and nature, asserting that all phenomena arise from the same natural processes.

Themes of unity and non-dual awareness emerge, with connection understood as internal rather than dependent on external conditions, and Ben reflecting that true connection can be found even in solitude.

Joel introduces the metaphor of the world as a garden, drawing on teachings associated with Menachem Mendel Schneerson, describing humans as caretakers responsible for cultivating and tending both inner and outer life.

• God (Tao) says, 'be what I made you to be!'
• God (Tao) is found in relationship.
• Does God want us to know Him (or ourselves) most intimately?
• Dependent Co-arising?
• 'Simultaneously, I and all beings attain the Way' (Awaken to Reality) ~Buddha
• 'Essentially, outside of me, nothing exists'
• Verse 18
• What does it mean to let go?
• What do we let go of?
• To be human is to be attached?
• Closes with Verse 81, and then Joel reads two poems by Ikkyu.

Biographies of Panel:

Dr. Bob Insull is an New York State Licensed Psychologist with more than 60 years experience teaching, training, and treating in the arena of human behavior. In his clinical practice, he has worked across the developmental stages (children to golden-agers), across the diagnostic spectrum (chemical dependency, severe mental illness, relationship issues, depression, anxiety, and PTSD), and treatment settings (clinics, inpatient psychiatric centers, and private practice). During the closing years of his practice, he became interested in the area of psychological trauma and worked with survivors in individual and group settings. He has been retired from active practice for about 15 years and spends his time engaged in self-discovery on the Sufi Path and social-change activities with his church.

------

Brian Mistler enjoys communing with fellow inquirers and reflecting together on revealed perennial wisdom.

• Hari Om Tat Sat. Peace, peace, peace.

-------

Richard Grego is Professor of philosophy and cultural history at FSCJ. His research interests focus on cross cultural themes in religion and science - including philosophy of mind, comparative world religions/world civilizations, and the metaphysical - theological implications of theoretical physics and cosmology. His publications have included studies in the history - philosophy of science and conceptions of nature in the history of western philosophy, as well as cross-cultural perspectives on mind/ consciousness in western philosophy - psychology and the neo-Vedanta Hindu tradition. Prior to his academic career, he was a criminal investigator - polygraph examiner for the Florida Office of the Public Defender and in the private sector Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute and International Academy of Polygraph Science in Florida, and national Academic Director of the Criminal Defense Investigation Training Council.

-------

Joel David Lesses is President and Executive Director of Education Training Center, Inc. and his work experience is in education, psychology, and counseling for people marginalized by trauma, addiction, and psychological distress. He is deeply vested in addressing the effects of mental health distress and its marginalization including, incarceration, homelessness, and institutionalization. Joel is dedicated to reframing mental health distress as a potential spiritual marker and existential opportunity. He holds dual Master of Science degrees from University at Buffalo in Rehabilitation Counseling and Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Epidemiology.   

-------

Henry Cretella, M.D. studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for several years along with training in martial arts.  He then immersed himself in the more universal Sufism of Inayat Khan, an Indian mystic, for close to twenty years. He functioned as a senior teacher in the Inayati Order and the Sufi Healing Order before pursuing  his independent practice and study of mysticism. He now integrates what he has learned and experienced over these many years. He graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and completed his psychiatric training at Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.  His professional career spanned over 40 years as a general and child and adolescent psychiatrist and included teaching, administration, clinical practice and consultation in the greater Rochester and western NY areas.  This, along with his spiritual and especially mystical interests lead him to certification as a mind body practitioner through the Center for Mind Body Medicine and Dr. James Gordon.  He retired several years ago from active psychiatric practice, but continues to incorporate what he has learned into his spiritual practices and offerings.

Bob, Brian, Rich, Henry and Joel share Verse 1 and questions arise:

• What is Reality?
• Is the Tao Reality?
• What is the Tao?
• What does the term Anti-foundational mean?
• Reversal Yin/ Yang in relation to Tao.
• Paradox and the Tao.
• Everyday consciousness is the pathway to the Tao.
• What is the relationship with Buddhism, Hinduism, Christiainity and Tao?
• What does silence offer in relation to the Tao?
• The Beginningless Beginning?
• Is the Tao directly knowable?
• Tibetan Buddihsm and the Tao.
• Verse 17 and Verse 38 are explored.
• Wu Wei. 
• How do we serve God?
• How do we serve Tao?
• Why did God create?

Biographies of Panel:

Dr. Bob Insull is an New York State Licensed Psychologist with more than 60 years experience teaching, training, and treating in the arena of human behavior. In his clinical practice, he has worked across the developmental stages (children to golden-agers), across the diagnostic spectrum (chemical dependency, severe mental illness, relationship issues, depression, anxiety, and PTSD), and treatment settings (clinics, inpatient psychiatric centers, and private practice). During the closing years of his practice, he became interested in the area of psychological trauma and worked with survivors in individual and group settings. He has been retired from active practice for about 15 years and spends his time engaged in self-discovery on the Sufi Path and social-change activities with his church.

-------

Brian Mistler enjoys communing with fellow inquirers and reflecting together on revealed perennial wisdom.

• Hari Om Tat Sat. Peace, peace, peace.

-------

Richard Grego is Professor of philosophy and cultural history at FSCJ. His research interests focus on cross cultural themes in religion and science - including philosophy of mind, comparative world religions/world civilizations, and the metaphysical - theological implications of theoretical physics and cosmology. His publications have included studies in the history - philosophy of science and conceptions of nature in the history of western philosophy, as well as cross-cultural perspectives on mind/ consciousness in western philosophy - psychology and the neo-Vedanta Hindu tradition. Prior to his academic career, he was a criminal investigator - polygraph examiner for the Florida Office of the Public Defender and in the private sector Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute and International Academy of Polygraph Science in Florida, and national Academic Director of the Criminal Defense Investigation Training Council.

-------

Joel David Lesses is President and Executive Director of Education Training Center, Inc. and his work experience is in education, psychology, and counseling for people marginalized by trauma, addiction, and psychological distress. He is deeply vested in addressing the effects of mental health distress and its marginalization including, incarceration, homelessness, and institutionalization. Joel is dedicated to reframing mental health distress as a potential spiritual marker and existential opportunity. He holds dual Master of Science degrees from University at Buffalo in Rehabilitation Counseling and Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Epidemiology.   

-------

Henry Cretella, M.D. studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for several years along with training in martial arts.  He then immersed himself in the more universal Sufism of Inayat Khan, an Indian mystic, for close to twenty years. He functioned as a senior teacher in the Inayati Order and the Sufi Healing Order before pursuing  his independent practice and study of mysticism. He now integrates what he has learned and experienced over these many years. He graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and completed his psychiatric training at Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.  His professional career spanned over 40 years as a general and child and adolescent psychiatrist and included teaching, administration, clinical practice and consultation in the greater Rochester and western NY areas.  This, along with his spiritual and especially mystical interests lead him to certification as a mind body practitioner through the Center for Mind Body Medicine and Dr. James Gordon.  He retired several years ago from active psychiatric practice, but continues to incorporate what he has learned into his spiritual practices and offerings.

The discussion response from Richard offers Panta Rhei (i.e., everything changes).

What is identity?

Identity and a Real Self, are there two aspects within each of us?

• Is only one real?

Kireeragard: real world self (work self), imaginary self (the self you desire to be), true self (the one you don't know be discover)

• The question of First Principles (i.e., don't question, axiom)
• Richard as a mentor to many, including Joel, at Home of the Future
• The beginning of Unraveling Religion podcast, when Richard asked Joel 'would you like to do a radio show?'
• Arguments of Philosophy can sharpen one another
• Chavruta and sharping one another 
• Thomas Aquinas 
• Do things exist outside of time?
• Zen (i.e., in China Ch'an, the Mind Only School of Buddhism) is discussed
• Bodhidharma and Joshu, and the koan 'does a dog have Buddha nature?'
• Joshu started teaching at age of 80 and lived to be 120, he taught for 40 years
• Does this contradict Hieggerder's Being and Time that everything exists in Space and Time
• Is economics the basis of consciousness?
• Richard and Joel deconstruct that premise
• The reciprocity of energy is the basis of healthy community
• How do we support people who do not value the importance of recipocity
• Father Greg Boyle, Gangs Service and Kinship
• Judaism's emphasis on care for the widow, stranger, and the orphan
• The Lubavaticher Rebbe emphases on care of those without parents
• How is this emphases is embeded in Torah?

From Richard Wicka's notes:

• Kierkeggaard spoke about the concrete self (where you are today), the ideal self (the self you aspire to be) and the true self (the self that contains all your potential)
• 'Expanse' (a type of experience) is in contrast to words you use to describe the world. 
• You are observing.
• (Identity is a verb not a noun). 
• I can't think of anything that exists outside of time. People who think there are such things are following in the footsteps of Plato. 
• Krista Tippets has a podcast called 'On Being'. 
• The widow, the stranger and the Orphan vs. The Alienated, the ostracized and the damned. 
• I am where I am now because of good mentorship.

Biography

Richard Wicka is a Buffalo, N.Y.-based media artist and photographer and the proprietor of "The Home of the Future,"a media access center and production/recording studio based in his Kaisertown home.

Wicka has been providing a forum for artists in all media, activists, and everyday citizens of his Western New York community since the mid-1970s. He provides interested parties with technical support, studio time, and production tools free of charge, encouraging them to express themselves in ways that mainstream culture has not historically sanctioned.

In a 2009 interview with artists Julia Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter, Wicka described the mission of the Home of the Future (HOTF) this way:

“People are influenced by all these dreams that we’re surrounded with but … there’s also the actual lives that they lead aside from the dream. The idea that I’m constantly going back to is: what is the actual life that you’re leading aside from the dream? How can we express that? So a lot of my art is an attempt to either expose the dream or have people relate experiences outside the dream. That’s what the Five Minute Video Series is about and a lot of projects I’ve worked on have that as an underlying idea. I am of the opinion that the real lives we lead are more important than the dream.” [1]

The earliest incarnation of the HOTF in the 1970s and early 1980s was concerned primarily with recording original compositions by local musicians, but in succeeding decades new developments in technology inspired Wicka and his ever-growing circle of collaborators to experiment with new media, including answering machines, video, digital photography, public access television, the internet, and DIY filmmaking, among others.

In the early 1990s Wicka collaborated with Buffalo performers Ron Ehmke and Greg Sterlace on cable access series (Snap Judgments and The Greg Sterlace Show, respectively) for the city’s new public access station, which led in subsequent years to The HOTF TV Show, a long-running program with rotating hosts and formats, and then to The Five Minute Video Series, an ongoing project in which a diverse array of guests from throughout the community are invited to tell a story that lasts 5 minutes or less. With the advent of internet radio came ThinkTwice Radio in 2006, offering podcasts to anyone with a subject to discuss and the commitment to produce a regular show.

Wicka attended the seminary as an adolescent, then pursued a BA in philosophy from the University at Buffalo. In 1976 he founded Buffalo Paralegal Services. His work has been screened at venues and on television stations around the world. Wicka is a past board president of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center.

For more information on Richard Wicka, visit hotftv.net.

The conversation opens to how Joel and Pádraig met, and what informed Pádraig's life as a Poet and Theologian. Pádraig recalls the influences of Ireland and school and the foundation of poetry in that experience, and poetry as resistance, and the role of Peacemaker in the world.

Pádraig reads from his new book of poetry Kitchen Hymns' poem, 'The Long Table.'

The conversation opens to many faces of poetry and existence:

• Are we irrelevant to the Universe or is the human being the center point of existence?
• Do we understand what Love Is?
• Joel reads from the Mountains and Rivers Sutra of Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo
• Coming together for the point of comprehension and not necessary agreement
• The Church views of LGBTQ+ Community
• Beyond formal belief and nurturing the heart
• Pádraig and mentoring the younger generation
• Pádraig's Kitchen Hymns and On Being's Poetry Unbound Anthology released in 2025: 44 Poems on Being with Each Another 
• Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah
• Kabbalah is for Humankind
• Plato's Soul with Two Faces
• The importance of Good Questions is rooted in Judaism and is applicable to all spiritual traditions
• Midrash in Judaism 
• The body and the erotic in relation to spirituality and the deeper questions of existence
• Star of David deconstructed
• In Judaism a single person is known as half a human being
• The Garments of the Soul: Intention, Thought, Action, and Speech
• The Zohar and the thirst for deeper esoteric secrets
• Pádraig examines the relationship between poetry and prayer
• 'You' in poetry, most prayers include the word 'you'
• Pádraig reads from Kitchen Hymns, 'Do You Believe In God?'
• Close examination of a text will lead you into infinitity 
• Are Jewish soul's always in Jewish bodies?
• Joel reads Gary Synder's 'Why Log Truck Drivers Rise Earlier Than Students of Zen'
• Poetry transports us to other time and place, poetry as a time-machine
• Rooted spirituality is in the body 
• Joel reads Rainer Maria Rilke's 'Go To The Limits of Your Longing' 

Pádraig closes with Kitchen Hymns' poem, 'Untitled.'

Biography

Pádraig Ó Tuama (b. 1975, Ireland) is a poet with interests in language, violence, power, and religion. He is the host of On Being’s Poetry Unbound and has published volumes of poetry, essays, a memoir and theology.  2025 saw the publication of  Kitchen Hymns, a volume of original poems, and the anthology 44 Poems on Being with Each Other; A Poetry Unbound Collection. He is a visiting scholar at the centre for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia university in New York City.

Phil's history of experiences into spirituality, beginning with the death of his father and Phil's Aunt returning from a psychiatric hospitalization to Phil's home when Phil was a boy.

Also discussed, Phil's career development and choice and his search for meaningful work; from Orthodontistry to Photography and shooting covers of Romance Novels, Phil begin an ascent into work and exploring indigenous cultures.

His first project was working on a project in Tibet which he meet a young man identified as a Tulku (i.e., channeler of the Nachung Oracle, the Oversoul Protector of the Tibetan People Culture and Heritage). 

Phil interviewed the Tulku and learned how he came to his position in the Tibetan community.

The indicators of this position were seen in his Tibetan Community as positive signs of a gifted person and included mood swings, personality changes, hearing voices, and seeing visions.

This mental health crisis was the mark of a gifted person in Tibetan community. 

In other work, Phil worked with Amnesty International and the Samburu Tribe in where he met a young woman who at 14 started hearing voices and seeing vision.

Her grandmother recognized she had the gift to become a predictor, healer, and shaman in her community and took her under her wing and mentored her and these gifts into a skillset to benefit the community.

As Phil worked with many indigenous communities he began to interview the shaman, seers, healers, and predictors of these communities and found about 85% of the shaman had an an initiation into the path of the Shaman by a mental health crisis, defined by what the West would call psychosis. 

The community understood the mental health crisis as the beginning of a process of developing a person to become a leader, healer, and teacher in their community, and an elder would take them under their wing and mentor and guide them.

The mental emotional crisis is known by many shaman as 'The Little Death' or Ego Death.

Phil also in his career worked with neuroscientists to research the pathways of the brain.

Sudden awakening versus slow awakening was discussed across cultures (i.e., Mahayana school of Soto and Rinzai).

Phil also discusses his own experiences with psychedelics and micro-dosing and the importance of integrating those expericences into daily life require effort and work.

Phil and Joel discuss that we each have a specific kind of work and the human's journey is to search and find what that work might be. 

Liminal Space was defined as a threshold or a doorway and rebuilding after a breakthrough.

Phil reflects on his life now and his work on his memoirs documenting where his quest for meaningful work took him through his life.

Biography

Phil Borges, has been documenting indigenous cultures and striving to create an understanding of the challenges they face. Phil has spoken at multiple TED talks; including TED in 2007, TEDxRainier in 2012 and TEDxUMKC in 2013 and hosted television documentaries for Discovery and National Geographic. 

Chris discusses his recent trip and the lessons, resolutions, and insights from his travels to the west coast, focusing on the spiritual aspects.

The conversation tends toward defining 'Pilgrimage' as setting an intention of questions and seeing what happens or unravels with the experience as an answer or response to the questions and intention. 

After graduation from college, his path opened to extended compassion to the marginalized, the poor, and after college Chris entered into another phase of life, he lived in solidarity with people who were homeless, practicing presence and 'present-ness' with these communities.

Chris cites in his life the transformation from service to devotion: born into a challenging family, his compassion for others was cultivated, later manifesting into activism with the homeless communities and prisoners and inmates, seeking to address the Prison System.

Chris intentionally placed himself in the heart of suffering as an act of mercy to fulfill an aspect of his understanding of spirituality, and this helped him bridge his own suffering into compassion for others in community who are marginalized and suffer.

Chris was inspired reading the Buddhist Sutras and the New Testament, influenced by Buddha and Jesus.

Chris' understanding of activism and advocacy lends itself to cultivating and amplifying voices of the marginalized. 

Chris shares he has been working with Jesus the Liberatory Seminary for over a decade, utilizing creativity and theology to amplify voices.

Prisoners share writings though Jesus the Liberator Seminary of Religous Justice, which has three books published:

• Prison Theology (Published, 2013)
• Dreamers, Romans and Prisons: Meditations on Crime, Illness, Healing and Liberation (Published, 2015)
• More to this Confession: Relational Prison Theology (Published, 2020)
  
  

Chris found that communal living developed skill building toward activism, repair, and restoration. 

Chris talks about the 'why' of his activism, work, and devotion; the 'why' of activism identified by Chris is 'the general compassion for others, that is the 'why' of activism.'

This general compassion for people ties into activism and his pilgramages: 

• helps Chris in addressing suffering
• 'pilgrimages' uncover how and why one acts the way they do 
• Chris reflects on his initial pilgrimage, the Tenderloin District in San Fransisco  
• Chris took an early pilgramage to Wounded Knee (i.e., 1890 Massacre), also reflecting on Sitting Bull and Black Elk

Chris reads from his writings.

The discussion turns to The Ten (10) Ox Herding Dipictions and the Marketplace as the last of the Ten (10) Dipictions.

The conversation opens to a quotation shared by Roshi Philip Kapleau:

• 'life is not a riddle to be solved, but a reality to be lived.'

Many struggle with 'The Why?' of Life, the talk outlines 'the why' is for the Divine and 'the how' is for people to respond to Life's complexities.

 Biography of Chris Barbera:

Chris Barbera has lived in the backs of empty churches and intentional communities and worked on various social justice movements and has, for many years, administered an educational nonprofit, Jesus the Liberator Seminary of Religious Justice, which focuses upon developing a 'Prison Theology' with people incarcerated.

He currently lives intentionally at the interfaith nonprofit, Network of Religious Communities.

In short, he has lived and worked with poor people at the intersection of grassroots justice movements, spiritually lived ideas and experiences in relation with institutional structures, traditions, and nonprofit efforts, as well as at the intersection of poetry and theology.

All is all in all rooted and wind. 

• 'Can the criminal on the cross be the incarcerated, executed Godhead?' 

Chris and Joel address America, Prisoners, and the Prison Industral Complex through a Restorative Justice lens and how to evolve and connect with spiritual teachings and pedagogical through a Restorative Justice framework.

'Prison Theology' is an extension of Liberation Theology:

• At their core, both express a ‘preferential option for the poor’
• Both work to articulate a theology that empowers people disaffected by dominant paradigms of power
• Both articulations are born among the struggles of oppressed people '…and so we start from where we are.'

About the book Prison Theology, eight different writers share their experiences and thoughts regarding incarceration in America.

Restorative Justice was born in Latin America, and the Vatican II Era, a grassroots, poor people movement, mobilization to return the spiritual aspect of those who have been marginalized and inprisioned.

The discussion moves to these topics:

• The notion of the Bodhisattva, responding to the cries of the world
• Jesus as a Bodhisattva, who is considered Jesus?
• Do money and wealth correlate with character, worth, and human value and dignity?
• A person is free when they are allowed to work through their trials and tribulations 
• What is a crime versus what is criminalized?
• Equality of the Law, a realistic approach to Justice

Judgement and Punishment 

• What is judgement?
• Who determines the fate of others?
• To evaluate how to better address the infractions society creates

Looking at Society and the Individual

• Reconciliation: what is it?
  • bringing the sin and the rehabilitation from the sin together, refiguring and understanding it
  • society and inmate, reconciliation 
  • victim and offender, reconciliation 
  • when the victim has the strength, to offer forgiveness to the offender
  • looking at the context and circumstance of life of the inmate
  • Chris emphasizes the work should come from a place of love, concern for another person, regardless of the actions 

Forming community, connection in community with theology, religious justice, education and Universities that have prison programs, and utilize them to work toward an equality of voices.

Chris' work helps to create a network unifying the connection between the church, the university, and inmate.

Chris shares his vision and hope where advocacy addressing the Prison Industrial Complex is going.

The Church and the University are within the inmate, Prison Theology and Liberation Theology seek to cultivate this understanding.

Biography of Chris Barbera:

Chris Barbera has lived in the backs of empty churches and intentional communities and worked on various social justice movements and has, for many years, administered an educational nonprofit, Jesus the Liberator Seminary of Religious Justice, which focuses upon developing a 'Prison Theology' with people incarcerated.

He currently lives intentionally at the interfaith nonprofit, Network of Religious Communities.

In short, he has lived and worked with poor people at the intersection of grassroots justice movements, spiritually lived ideas and experiences in relation with institutional structures, traditions, and nonprofit efforts, as well as at the intersection of poetry and theology.

All is all in all rooted and wind.

Pulled from the Archives of Unraveling Religion, this September 2009 episode recorded at the studio in the Home of The Future, Chris and Joel speak of the Erie County Holding Center Federal Investigation Findings of Human and Constitutional Rights abuses which open the talk to the practical responses from ancient and spiritual foundations and teachings to point the way and address to the conditions and actions that violated human and constitutional rights that were recorded and documented in the Federal Findings and Report. 

Erie County Holding Center under Federal investigation, and Chris discusses the response from the Erie County Holding Center Leadership, 'consider the source' inferring that because the investigation addresses human and constitutional rights abuses of inmates and prisoners, there should be no concern, dehumanizing the reality that inmates and prisoners are human beings.

Chris and Joel expand the talk to Native Teachings and how labels and stereotypes dehumanize Native People concealing the deep wisdom and sanctity of Native People, the embodied connection with ecology and Nature, spirituality and honoring relations. 

Regarding County Jails and Holding Center, some of the voices coming out of the Holding Center, what the experiences taught people who were/are prisoners and inmates:

• wisdom born out of suffering 
• suffering is part of our world
• suffering has helped created the greatest teachers of the world
• making wisdom out of the suffering of the conditions of the Erie County Holding Center

Chris and Joel discuss incorporating meditation and ancient teachings applied not only to inmate and prisoners but also those as advocates and activists for the prison system.

The talk turns toward insights regarding the practical way of understanding projections of the mind toward others (e.g., inmates) as one's own dark aspect (e.g., Prison Leadership).

Also discussed, William Blake's Poison Tree:

'I was angry with my friend; 
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe: 
I told it not, my wrath did grow.' 

Supermax Prisons seek to deepen isolation techniques for inmates:

• 'what is that really about?'
• how is that considered ethical treatment of human beings
• how does that contribute to the rehabilitation and restoration of people in prison
• Siddhartha Gautama, 'ignorance is the main cause of human suffering.'
• we create our own (human) experiencemuch of our choices are based on unconscious aspects of our human experience
• 'Cause and Effect' (i.e., Karma) is not (another) Law, but rather it is Reality Expressed, a practical expression of the Unity of Existence.  

'Be Still and Know that I am God:'

• what does that mean and how can it be applied to healing our prisons and prisoners
• karma is also 'work' (i.e., another interpretation)
• 'you want to know my faith, look at my works'
• if you want Justice in this world, find injustice and address it
• spirituality as practical, a practical solution (i.e., spirituality is practical when applied with care)
• when religion becomes a superstition, too abstract, or metaphysical, people lose genuine connection with God

Joel asks Chris what he hopes to see for a vision of the future

• Community Action, call to action
• Legal Route, class action law suit
• Awareness

Joel and Chris close the talk referencing the Ba'al Shem Tov ('everything you see is a teaching for Divine Service to God') and Native American Teachings of animal spirit and animal totem. 

Biography of Chris Barbera:

Chris Barbera has lived in the backs of empty churches and intentional communities and worked on various social justice movements and has, for many years, administered an educational nonprofit, Jesus the Liberator Seminary of Religious Justice, which focuses upon developing a 'Prison Theology' with people incarcerated.

He currently lives intentionally at the interfaith nonprofit, Network of Religious Communities.

In short, he has lived and worked with poor people at the intersection of grassroots justice movements, spiritually lived ideas and experiences in relation with institutional structures, traditions, and nonprofit efforts, as well as at the intersection of poetry and theology.

All is all in all rooted and wind.

• 2009 'Real Flowers Of This Painful World,' Compassion Manifest For All Beings, Spirituality Forged Through Practical Application: A Conversation With Chris Barbera
• 2013 'Prison Theology,' Restorative Justice and Equalizing Voices, An Examination of The Prison Industrial Complex: A Discussion with Chris Barbera (scheduled release end of July 2025)
• 2022 A Pilgrimage, Journey Of The Heart: Examining 'The Why' Of Life With Chris Barbera (scheduled release end of August 2025)

Reissued, these previously archived talks with Chris are introduced and Joel and Chris address a summary of each episode and arrive at discussing the importance of mentorship in life as a part of societal restoration, the need for positive role models, both mascline and feminine to offer wisdom, guidance, and counsel to people who would otherwise be without it. 

Music: Natalie Merchant 'Owensboro' and 'Poor Wayfaying Stranger' both from 'The House Carpenter's Daughter' (© 2003 Myth America Records)

• Medicine as a great human equalizer
• Toward human rights, once people step away from the border of the hospitals, they become categorized and labeled 'Palestinian' or 'Israeli'
• If you believe in Humanity, we must all stand for all
• Human Rights is deeply tested in Gaza, people must stand up for human rights
• Advocate not for peace but for dignity, justice, freedom, and human rights for all: peace will follow when these conditions are cultivated 

• As a poet, every voice is important in the world, every voice represents humanity. 
• Regarding Gaza, this is an overwhelming tragedy of sorrow
• The importance of actions based on one's convictions
• The power of the military industry complex to overide the voice of the majority and humanity's collective voice
• How can we be heard, how can we be listened to?
• Who is listening?

The idea, our obligation is to our humanity, looking within our selves we recognize our humanity

David recalls a story of Maj pulling up in David's driveway in Maj's Chevy Nova and Maj reciting Antonio Machado's 'Last Night, As I Was Sleeping.'

David and Joel discuss David's forthcoming memoir 'Prayer Wheel' and Maj's influence, open readings in Kent, and death and how it is healthy to openly discuss death as a preparation for its coming.

The unique quality of the Kent poetry community and Kent as a epicenter and confluence as a spiritual portal, and Kent's poetry commmunity as wisdom holder and torch-bearer drawing poets to the Kent community.

Dreams as a connection with our ancestors and those dreams as a conversation with messages from our ancestors for us, waking us up to what we need to see our lives more clearly.

Hearing the voices of the living and the dead, and how we tend to the dead as a reflection of the quality of our life.

David offers the Mayan teaching that the other world sings us into being.

David and Joel close out the conversation with discussion of the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Wick Poetry Center, and winding down David reads 'Kissing Lightening.'

Biography

David Hassler is the Bob and Walt Wick Executive Director of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and cofounded Traveling Stanzas, a community arts project which brings poetry to the most urgent and evolving needs of our communities through expressive writing interventions, interactive exhibits, and digital platforms. Most recently in May 2023, Hassler presented the Poets for Science project with poet Jane Hirshfield at the Nobel Prize Summit at the National Academy of Sciences. Hassler is the author or editor of ten books of poetry and nonfiction, including Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic. His play, What We Learned While Alone, drawn from the Dear Vaccine anthology, debuted at the National Academy of Sciences in October 2022. Hassler is also the author of the play, May 4th Voices: Kent State, 1970, based on the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project, which was produced in 2020 as a national radio play. Hassler’s awards include Ohio Poet of the Year, the Ohioana Book Award, and the Carter G. Woodson Honor Book Award. His memoir 'Prayer Wheel' is forthcoming. His TEDx talk, “The Conversation of Poetry,” conveys the power of poetry to strengthen communities. In addition to his creative writing publications, he has co-authored articles on poetry, technology, and healing in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, and the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing.

David gives a history of the Wick Poetry Center and his academic career.

The conversation examines 'how do we make sense of the world and manage our own life?' with and through poetry.

Discussion turns to the topic of death and the loss of David's mother as a source of need to write and make sense of the grief and loss for David, and how he was influenced by Maggie Anderson and Maj Ragain.

David shares his travels to Japan and Obon Festival in Japan and David's connection to the festival and its relationship to his mother's passing, his coming to terms with her death through poetry. 

David reads his own poem 'Obon.'

Also discussed, how Maj Ragain lit the light of poetry in others.

David shares a dream about Maj, how he felt Maj visited David in the dream, and Maj shared to David, 'you cannot touch me.'

Threading the voices of poets, living and dead throughout the ages, poetry as a way of keeping poetry alive for our Kent poetry community.

David reads his own poem 'Sharing The Drum That I Am.'

Biography

David Hassler is the Bob and Walt Wick Executive Director of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and cofounded Traveling Stanzas, a community arts project which brings poetry to the most urgent and evolving needs of our communities through expressive writing interventions, interactive exhibits, and digital platforms. Most recently in May 2023, Hassler presented the Poets for Science project with poet Jane Hirshfield at the Nobel Prize Summit at the National Academy of Sciences. Hassler is the author or editor of ten books of poetry and nonfiction, including Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic. His play, What We Learned While Alone, drawn from the Dear Vaccine anthology, debuted at the National Academy of Sciences in October 2022. Hassler is also the author of the play, May 4th Voices: Kent State, 1970, based on the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project, which was produced in 2020 as a national radio play. Hassler’s awards include Ohio Poet of the Year, the Ohioana Book Award, and the Carter G. Woodson Honor Book Award. His memoir 'Prayer Wheel' is forthcoming. His TEDx talk, “The Conversation of Poetry,” conveys the power of poetry to strengthen communities. In addition to his creative writing publications, he has co-authored articles on poetry, technology, and healing in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, and the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing.

• 'What makes us come alive?'
• 'What is your 'note' in life?' (Rumi's 'be your note.')

The poet Major Ragain is quoted, 'contemplation alters the course of rivers.'

From the Bhagavad Gita:

• Freedom from action is not accomplished by abstaining from action, so how is it accomplished?
• Relinquishing the fruit of action 

Ghandi's, 'through service, I find myself.'

The Panel begins to examine the Taoist concept of non-action, Wu Wei.

How do we cultivate Wu Wei?

The Panel explores Univerisal Truths.

• Natural action arises, we have a deep intrinsic calling, how do we find and express it?
• What is our reason for being here?
• To receive the Divine Will is a part of choiceless action.

Biographies of Panel:

Dr. Bob Insull is an New York State Licensed Psychologist with more than 60 years experience teaching, training, and treating in the arena of human behavior. In his clinical practice, he has worked across the developmental stages (children to golden-agers), across the diagnostic spectrum (chemical dependency, severe mental illness, relationship issues, depression, anxiety, and PTSD), and treatment settings (clinics, inpatient psychiatric centers, and private practice). During the closing years of his practice, he became interested in the area of psychological trauma and worked with survivors in individual and group settings. He has been retired from active practice for about 15 years and spends his time engaged in self-discovery on the Sufi Path and social-change activities with his church.

Brian Mistler is a Missouri-hillbilly curious about Reality. He has lived as a computer scientist, psychologist, running and growing  businesses, and helping entrepreneurs, hospitals, and healthcare providers. Mid-life Brian had a partially debilitating nerve injury and soon after met a true Vedanta teacher who spent 30+ years in India and trained under Swami Chimayananda, Sawmi Dayananda, and others. This refocused his study of the classic non-dual wisdom as presented in the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads. Learn more at http://www.stillcenter.media. Hari Om Tat Sat. Peace, peace, peace. 

Richard Grego is Professor of philosophy and cultural history at FSCJ. His research interests focus on cross cultural themes in religion and science - including philosophy of mind, comparative world religions/world civilizations, and the metaphysical - theological implications of theoretical physics and cosmology. His publications have included studies in the history - philosophy of science and conceptions of nature in the history of western philosophy, as well as cross-cultural perspectives on mind/ consciousness in western philosophy - psychology and the neo-Vedanta Hindu tradition. Prior to his academic career, he was a criminal investigator - polygraph examiner for the Florida Office of the Public Defender and in the private sector Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute and International Academy of Polygraph Science in Florida, and national Academic Director of the Criminal Defense Investigation Training Council.

Joel David Lesses is President and Executive Director of Education Training Center, Inc. and his work experience is in education, psychology, and counseling for people marginalized by trauma, addiction, and psychological distress. He is deeply vested in addressing the effects of mental health distress and its marginalization including, incarceration, homelessness, and institutionalization. Joel is dedicated to reframing mental health distress as a potential spiritual marker and existential opportunity. He holds dual Master of Science degrees from University at Buffalo in Rehabilitation Counseling and Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Epidemiology.   

Henry Cretella, M.D. studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for several years along with training in martial arts.  He then immersed himself in the more universal Sufism of Inayat Khan, an Indian mystic, for close to twenty years. He functioned as a senior teacher in the Inayati Order and the Sufi Healing Order before pursuing  his independent practice and study of mysticism. He now integrates what he has learned and experienced over these many years. He graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and completed his psychiatric training at Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.  His professional career spanned over 40 years as a general and child and adolescent psychiatrist and included teaching, administration, clinical practice and consultation in the greater Rochester and western NY areas.  This, along with his spiritual and especially mystical interests lead him to certification as a mind body practitioner through the Center for Mind Body Medicine and Dr. James Gordon.  He retired several years ago from active psychiatric practice, but continues to incorporate what he has learned into his spiritual practices and offerings.

Rabbi Jessica and Joel start with discussing Torah and the teaching of G-d's Work (i.e., Six (6) Days of Creation) and G-d's Rest, and how that relates to Shabbas:

• The conversations about the Shabbas Hebrew shoresh (i.e., root of the word) 'shin, bet, and taf' (i.e., Shabbas) 
• From the teaching of Shabbas, the thirty-nine (39) forms of Melachot (i.e., work) are discussed, and Melachot is outlined as work forbidden on Shabbas. 
• The definition of the thirty-nine (39) Melachot comes from the work required to create the Mishkan (i.e., Tabernacle) and that specific work defines what work is not allowed on Shabbas.

Also discussed is the relationship between work and destiny, and the spirituality of work.

An excerpt from Pema Chodron 'nothing leaves us before it teaches us what we need to know' suggests the work required in human relationships and the teaching of Reb Soloveitchik are also discussed: two stories of creation in Torah point to two ways to relate to the world and two kinds of work: physical and spiritual. 

Work and its relation to authencity and authenic expression versus Quid Pro Quo are contrasted, as well as women in work from a Judaism perspective, evolution of women and work and practical consideration.

The organization 'One Table' is mentioned, helping young people access Shabbas Dinner experiences.

Plato's teaching of the Soul with Two Faces and its relation to the Jewish teaching of Bashert and Kabbalah.

Lanie Gardner as an example of authencity in work.

Tzelem Elokim (i.e., humans are created in the image of G-d) posits that because God creates, we too are meant to create.

Are we called to create in work through destiny or do we work to pay bills and solve practical problems.

Work is revealed in it own time.

Marcus Aurelius 'the obstacle is the door.'

Chappell Roan and their NPR Tiny Desk.

How to make work meaningful for all.

Seattle Grunge scene in the early 1990s an an authentic expression of music and work.

The shoresh 'aleph, lamed, and chaf' (i.e., from Melachot) ties to 'dispatching for a purpose' and the root ties to the Hebrew work for 'Messenger' and/or 'Angel'- that work offers purpose, and can give one a sense of mission that ties into intention and service.

About Rabbi Jessica Minnen

Rabbi Jessica Minnen is a writer, ritualist, and liturgist committed to the discipline of delight.

Inspired by user-centered design, she consults with organizations across the country to create, deliver, and scale transformative Jewish learning. Jessica is a sought-after educator who has taught for Hillel International, Jewish Federations of North America, JCC Association of North America, Foundation for Jewish Camp, and Birthright Israel, among others. She was a part of the founding team of OneTable where she served as Rabbi in Residence from 2014-2021, and now works as a Senior Education Specialist with Momentum where she focuses on introducing women around the world to Jewish values through an immersive Israel experience, regional retreats, cohort-based learning, and a daily companion app.

Originally from Paducah, Kentucky, Jessica is an alumna of Washington University in St. Louis, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Paideia: The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden, and Baltimore Hebrew University. She is a past Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Women’s Leadership Mission and the Ruskay Institute for Professional Leadership and received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2013.

Jessica lives in Denver, Colorado and is mom to one amazing dog and one amazing human.

Biography

Henry Cretella, M.D., graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and completed his psychiatric training at Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.  His professional career spanned over 40 years as a general and child and adolescent psychiatrist and included teaching, administration, clinical practice and consultation in the greater Rochester and western NY areas.  This, along with his spiritual and especially mystical interests lead him to certification as a mind body practitioner through the Center for Mind Body Medicine and Dr. James Gordon.  He retired several years ago from active psychiatric practice, but continues to incorporate what he has learned into his spiritual practices and offerings.

Henry studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for several years along with training in martial arts.  He then immersed himself in the more universal Sufism of Inayat Khan, an Indian mystic, for close to twenty years. He functioned as a senior teacher in the Inayati Order and the Sufi Healing Order before pursuing  his independent practice and study of mysticism. He now integrates what he has learned and experienced over these many years.

Avoiding and easing unnecessary suffering is a worthwhile goal, but so is the less often discussed opportunity for transformation that distress provides.  

Mystics teach that the heart and mind open through suffering.  

The good news is that we don’t have to look for upsets, they find us quite easily.

Join Henry Cretella and Lisa Carley as we discuss her journey through mental illness and how it led to her personal heart-mind opening and impacted her life for the better.  

It’s a journey of courage to explore and change, using all the tools that are available to understand and ease the pain while never closing the door that has been unlocked.  

Biographies 

Lisa Carley

Hosting the podcast, 'The Labyrinth,' Lisa Carley is passionate about India, existential and phenomenological philosophy/psychology, and maternal mental health. She chooses to explore her passion through travel, connection with others, and writing. She holds a degree in English Literature from SUNY Albany, and has worked toward a Psy. D. in Clinical Psychology with a Masters in Existential Humanistic Psychology from Saybrook, is a mother, student of Philosophy and English, artisan, and poet.

Henry Cretella

Henry Cretella's Alchemical Dialogues are live and unscripted conversations recorded on Zoom brought to you by the great folks of Amber Light International. We choose topics from our current social and cultural climate, with an emphasis on humanism and spirituality.

In a cross-collaboration with both Lisa Carley's new podcast The Labyrinth, and Joel Lesses' Unraveling Religion podcast, we have begun posting 'Selected, Best of The Labyrinth' and 'Selected, Best of Unraveling Religion' episodes on Alchemical Dialogues.

We continue to promote conversations that evolve our understanding of the vital topics of spirituality, the humanities, psychology, and The Arts and deepen community through this mutual support.

This collection of dedicated and diverse Jewish voices guide the contemporary question 'how do we strengthen the spiritual health of our Jewish community?'

Discussion includes Passover and meditation, The Tanya, and Pirkei Avot (i.e., Ethics of Our Fathers).

By the very question of mobilization outreach, the necessity of examining one's own intentions and purity of action in humility and approaching others in friendship as vital to sharing love of Judaism.

The talk arrives at the place of true friendship as the means of transmitting the teaching of Judaism and Torah to others in the Jewish community and the vital realization that all people have significance and a role in the restoration of the World.  

Biography of Panelists:

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is a preeminent Jewish thinker, scholar, and teacher. Rabbi Greenberg has brought the highest ideas to broad audiences. Across half a century, Rabbi Greenberg has elevated the way people live and feel by elevating the way they think. In a world of new media, where digital waves move oceans of information across continents, Rabbi Greenberg stands out as a voice of clarity. In the fathomless sea of information, often overwhelming and confusing, Rabbi Greenberg serves as a calming conveyer of eternal ideas—an expert lighthouse directing the ships of humanity through the possibilities of life by the light of the divine.

Rabbi Gedaliah Gurfein has been a teacher of Jewish wisdom for over 45 years. His experiences have included a range from traditional yeshivot to Pueblo Indians, Igbo Tribes, China, Netherlands, Mexico and, of course, Israel. Gedaliah has also been involved in the Israeli High-Tech industry since 1995. His classic work - free to the public - is www.thepeoplestalmud.com.

Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks is a Jewish spiritual teacher and musician. He has been teaching the practice of Presence (i.e., meditation, mindfulness) and Judaism since 2006, and founded Torah of Awakening in 2016. He is the author of Kabbalah for Beginners, published by Rockridge Press, and Integral Jewish Meditation – Three Portals of Presence for Spiritual Awakening. Rabbi Brian Yosef received s’miha (ordination) as Minister of Sacred Music (Reb Yosef Briah Zohar, Menatzeiakh, Ba’al Tefilah) from Reb Zalman z”l  (2012), Spiritual Teacher and Awakener of Souls  (Morei Rukhani uM’oreir N’shamot) from Shaykh Ibrahim Baba Farajaje (may his secret be sanctified) and Rabbi SaraLeya Schley (2012), certification as Teacher of Jewish Meditation (Moreh L’hitbodedut) from Dr. Rabbi Avram Davis (2004), and holds a Bachelor in Music from the Eastman School of Music (1991).

Rabbi Micha Odenheimer: 'Born in 1958 in Berkeley California, Micha Odenheimer has been a writer, journalist, Jewish teacher and social activist in Israel since making aliyah 31 years ago. Micha’s life and interests include fields rarely seen in combination. As a rabbi he has written dozens of essays on Judaism the Torah, and social justice, and has reported on trends in Judaism and the Jewish world. Micha has a special interest in Jewish mysticism and Hasidism.'

In speaking with Joel, Kyoki explored insights from her long time Zen practice.

What is the nature of Self?

Questions opening into 'what is Zen?' and the relation to Dukkha (Sanskrit, suffering), how Zen practice addresses 'when are material possessions enough?'

The practical and experiential aspects of Zen practice, the streams of Soto versus Rinzai Zen traditions.

Addressing the sense of a separate self or as Dogen Zenji's teaching 'dropping away body and mind.'

Rinzai's koan, public case study: 'what is the sound of one hand clapping?' and Joshu's (Chinese, Zhouzhou) 'does a dog have Buddha nature? MU!'

Kyoki skillfully guides the conversation toward seeing things as they are.

What do we awakened to?

How do we reconcile Zen practice with God?

A examination of Dogen Zenji's teaching of Parental Mind, from his treatis Shobogenzo.

Bodhidharma's importance in Chinese Ch'an roots, and the story of Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu, 'no holiness, vast emptiness' and merit and Zen practice, doing things for 'no reason.'

Discursive mind versus Big Mind, the moment as fresh and new, all potentiation, step into the moment: here, now!

What is a Bodhisattva?

Exploring the Bodhisattva vow, and the question 'where can I be helpful?'

Taking suffering as a way to learn and be helpful and benefit others, through action and wisdom.

Biography

Reverend Kyōki Roberts (December 17, 1951 to December 19, 2023) was a retired American Sōtō Zen priest.

The single Dharma heir of Nonin Chowaney-roshi, Roberts received Dharma transmission in June 2001 and was a member of an organization of priests known as the Order of the Prairie Wind (OPW).

She studied Zen in Japan and in the United States.

Roberts blended her practice with art during the 2003 exhibition Gestures: An Exhibition of Small Site-Specific Works at The Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh. Her installation exhibit, No where to go; nothing to do: Just Sitting, invited visitors to experience aspects of Zazen.

In March 2006, Roberts served as a member of the Plenary Panel of Venerable Women: Women Living the Dharma in the 21st Century during the first Buddhist Women's Conference held at DePaul University and sponsored by the Buddhist Council of the Midwest.

(Biography from Wiki)

Beginning with the wisdom of the Sundance, Maj speaks of how the soul was formless and did not know limitation. As the Soul found form, the human body, it knew limitation including loneliness. Drawing on Buddhism's Zen Flesh, Zen Bones and Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Maj's talk weaves the 'Big Mind' that includes the thread and voice that forms his poetry.

Maj's talk includes the Tao Te Ching and its author Lao Tzu sharing 'I have only three things to share: simplicity, patience, and compassion.'

Maj concludes with Meister Eckhert's notion 'if the only prayer that is said is 'thank you' that would be enough.'

Biography:

Maj Ragain (1940 to 2018) was born into a small, southeastern Illinois farm town. Home-tutored and raised on Vernor Lake, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English at Eastern Illinois University, and an Master of Arts in English at the University of Illinois. He had been on faculty, off and on, at Kent State University since 1969, where he obtained his Ph. D. in 1990.

He is the author of seven chapbooks of poetry and five book-length collections, all of which contribute to Clouds Pile Up in the North: New & Selected Poems. Maj had served for more than thirty years as host to open poetry readings in Kent, monthly, downtown, mentoring hundr​eds​​ of poets through the years.

• How do we resolve life's Existential Delimma and paradox?
• What is 'Virtue?'
• Can 'Virtue' be taught?  

Joel drops in at Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore and finds Ken Kelbaugh, David White, and 'Ted' Estragon in philosophic discourse and joins the discussion examining Bishop Butler, Plotinus, and Plato.

A few minutes into the conversation, Rochester poet Stephen Lloyd joins the conversation.

Through the evolution of the talk, an examination of 'Virtue' begins to take shape. 

What is Virtue? Is it inherent? Can it be cultivated?

David outlines Bishop Butler's discourse on the topics of Human Nature, The Divine, Thought, Conscience, and Intellect and shares Butler's raison d'etre to 'seek the truth unashamed to learn.'

Ted shares 'we [human beings] are not a being, we are a becoming.'

An examination of 'daimon' versus 'intuition' is sought.

A myth of Zeus and the human question is shared.

Through this deep investigation of Virtue, myth and religion are explored.

The day's discussion closes with David White reading from his original poem Astratto.

Biography:

David White's birthplace was Fitch's Sanitarium in the Bronx (founded in 1920 and closed in the early 1960s) now he is in senior housing. David was born on December 29, 1946. The axis of his career is in philosophy, religion, and drama, and turned when he came to understand Bishop Butler’s explanation of the prophet unheeded. David's first poem was written on assignment for a college English class. On the last day, the professor handed his poem back, unmarked and ungraded. She said she had the poem on her desk since it was turned in, David reported that when the course had ended all she could say was, “I don’t know, I just don’t know.”

Vladimir Estragon ('Ted') is a militant Platonist, Plotinian, and Dionysius-Areogapitian - but insists on radical moderation in others. His career aspirations include learning Attic Greek, juggling with flaming torches, and performing 'Lucky's Speech' in a stage performance of 'Waiting for Godot.' Ted host's a monthly film viewing at Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore every 3rd Thursday of the month (except April), starting at 6:00 pm. This event is free and open to the public at 439 Monroe Avenue, Rochester NY.

Stephen Lloyd is a Rochester poet and frequenter of Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore.

Ken Kelbaugh is the owner of the Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore.

2015; 'The Sound of Silence' (Instrumental); Immortalized; Reprise Records

The answer, 'service.'

Also, surfing and meditation and the story of Reb Zusha, a Hasidic Master.

A Jewish Kabbalistic look at death, judgment, and Heavenly Decrees, ultimately who judges us?

Does human life have spiritual veils and what do they hide?

Also discussed is American Zen Buddhism and the two most influential books in American Zen, 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' and 'The Three Pillars of Zen.'

From Zen Mind, Beginner Mind, 'The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transcency or change.' and 'That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence.'

What actually determines the quality of our life: is it what we receive from others, or what we give to others? 

What is our relationship to Death?

What are we forced to let go of in life and what returns to us in the future? 

These explorations build into a final poem Lisa wrote and reads.

This conversation meanders among these three old, dear friends, and touches on nihilism, dissolution and romanticism, Dharma decay and Dharma renewal, changes and transformations.

Is there room for Hope in the world today?

Optimism?

Does the state of the world allow a falling away so that things might improve, a sense something better might come.

What does Enlightenment look like? What does Enlightenment feel like?

In this deeply intimate talk, Rich, Lisa, and Joel explore aspects of the existential path requiring courage and bravery, and the conversation deconstructs aspects of the work required to build a strong existence or spiritual foundation. 

Lisa, Rich, and Joel examine challenging and evolving social constructs, darkness versus light, mission and meaning and purpose, how do we find mission meaning and purpose?

Asking 'how' versus asking 'why?'

Fundamentally, what makes us feel we are far from where we should be, what makes us feel we are far from 'home.'

Biographies:

Richard Grego is Professor of philosophy and cultural history at FSCJ. His research interests focus on cross cultural themes in religion and science— including philosophy of mind, comparative world religions/world civilizations, and the metaphysical - theological implications of theoretical physics and cosmology. His publications have included studies in the history- philosophy of science and conceptions of nature in the history of western philosophy, as well as cross-cultural perspectives on mind/ consciousness in western philosophy - psychology and the neo-Vedanta Hindu tradition. Prior to his academic career, he was a criminal investigator-polygraph examiner for the Florida Office of the Public Defender and in the private sector Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute and International Academy of Polygraph Science in Florida, and national Academic Director of the Criminal Defense Investigation Training Council.

Lisa Carley is passionate about India, existential and phenomenological philosophy/psychology and maternal mental health. She chooses to explore her passion through travel, connection with others, and writing. She holds a degree in English Literaure from SUNY Albany, has work toward a Psy. D. in Clinical Psychology with a Masters in Existential Humanist Psychology from Saybrook, is a mother, student of Philosophy and English, artistian, and poet.

The talk continues in the examination of life asking 'What is being asked of me? What do I need to learn about this situation? What do I need to perceive in this situation?'

Also, asking questions of life, and responding to life's obstacles in a way that challenges our mental health and our existential paradigm, and the relationship to reconstructing ourselves, Phoenix like, after allowing ourselves to 'fall apart.'

Deeper into the conversation, the topic of the Existential Abyss and Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Heidegger, and looking at 'being true to [oneself] in the deepest possible sense.'

The talk opens to the complexities and wonders of being human.

Finally, existentially reassembling ourselves and its relationship to mental health and mental health distress.

Also, Henry discusses some of the aspects of Amber Light, Int. and its podcast Alchemical Dialogues and Joel explores the Programs and Services of Education Training Center, Inc. and the ways it seeks to address mental health and marginalization.

In this brief talk, the foundation of Amber Light, Int.'s relationship to Sufism and the threads found in all world's traditions are discussed as well as Education Training Center's podcast Unraveling Religion's relationship to build and support mental health through a strong spiritual or existential foundation, and other programs and services of Education Training Center, Inc. that address mental health without distinction to cause.

Listen to this collaboration to build healthy community with two old friends who share a common vision and passion to improve the quality of life for others.

Biography:

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is one of the world’s preeminent Jewish thinkers, scholars, teachers, inspirations, and inspirers. With a sublime blend of incredible intellectual prowess, vast encyclopedic knowledge, beautifully articulated language, and resounding resonant relatability, Rabbi Greenberg has brought the highest ideas to the broadest audiences. Across half a century, Rabbi Greenberg has elevated the way people live and feel by elevating the way they think. In a world of new media, where digital waves move oceans of information across continents, Rabbi Greenberg stands out as a voice of clarity. In the fathomless sea of information, often overwhelming and confusing, Rabbi Greenberg serves as a calming conveyer of eternal ideas—an expert lighthouse directing the ships of humanity through the possibilities of life by the light of the divine.

Continue listening to this panel discussion with five practitioners who are either involved or have been with both spirituality and religion, as they explore their views and experiences.

Aude Chesnais, Ph.D., has encountered various spiritual traditions before finding her family on the Sufi path since 2017. She is a political ecologist and senior researcher for the Native Lands Advocacy Project, and has been working closely with native communities in the USA for the past 10 years on issues of land sovereignty and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, particularly in support of regenerative food-systems transitions. Aude’s work reflects strongly on her positionality as a white researcher working in Indigenous settings. Although her spiritual path has led her on the quest to understand oneness, Aude’s professional path and commitment to social justice constantly reminds her of the real social impacts of human distinctions on their lives. Reconciling these two coexisting realities is Aude’s lifetime quest. Aude received her MA in social and solidarity economics from Université de Haute-Alsace, France and her Ph.D. in sociology from Colorado State University, CO, USA.

Henry Cretella, M.D., is the host of Alchemical Dialogues and co-director of Amber Light International. He is a retired psychiatrist who received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University and his post-graduate training at the University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY. Henry was raised Roman Catholic and later began initial studies in Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as in the martial arts before finding a home in the Sufi lineage of Inayat Khan. Henry no longer practices an exoteric religion, but teaches and guides others in a mystically oriented spirituality that incorporates the wisdom from many traditions and disciplines. For Henry, he believes that we are in an era calling for each of us to find and follow our own unique spiritual path. He also believes that we can connect with others and a power greater than ourselves, in order to further a positive expansion and evolution of human consciousness.

Tania Day-Magallon is an artist born in Mexico City and has collaborated in various art events and exhibits in Chicago, Mexico City, and Rochester, NY. She identifies as Muslim and is a Sufi practitioner. Tania started her art education at a young age, and she attended prominent art institutions in Mexico City. Tania’s art frequently uses symbolism and imagery emphasizing her own cultural identity and spiritual views. Tania became a member of the group formerly known as Women of Color in the Arts (WOC-Art) collaborative, where she curated an art activity and installation titled “Hands of Sorority”. Tania was also commissioned to design the cover of an issue for the academic journal Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies entitled Deterritorializing Frontiers. Tania earned her BA in Visual Arts from SUNY Empire State College, where she continued her studies in visual arts and psychology. She is currently earning her MS in Mental Health Counseling at SUNY Brockport. Tania believes that mental health, spirituality, and the arts are interwoven, and her current work is focused on exploring her roots, the Divine Feminine, and decolonial mental health approaches that include the creative process as a fundamental aspect of human wellbeing.

Margot VanEtten has a wide and varied background in spirituality and meditation, interfaith study and dialogue, martial arts, and ministerial practice including as a lay minister in the Catholic Church for many years. She holds a Master’s degree in Sacred Theology from St. Bernard’s Institute in Rochester, NY. From 2000 to 2019, Margot was the campus minister and director at the Brockport Newman Center where she was involved in ecumenical and interfaith work with the local ministers, student organizations including the Muslim Student Association and Campus Ambassadors, Interfaith campus ministry organizations across the Rochester area, and with the Diocese of Rochester’s Catholic/Orthodox Commission exploring relations with Eastern Orthodox churches. After retiring, Margot began working as a pastoral minister for St. Monica’s Church and Emmanuel Church of the Deaf where she became the first woman who was not a nun to be named Pastoral Associate in the Diocese of Rochester. Prior, she was a sign language interpreter and liaison to the chaplain’s office at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This fits neatly into her early background: Margot grew up in a town on Long Island (Great Neck), which at the time, had a rather diverse religious and cultural population, and it was there that she grew to deeply appreciate the Jewish tradition, as well as her own Christian faith.

Joel David Lesses, who has lived in Nepal and Israel, is a poet expressing the landscape of our existence and capturing the mystical elements of our human being. He believes world religion, poetry, spirituality, and meditation encompass the makeup of our mind and life. The crux of his own journey is the manifestation of questions and answers to his own koan “What is the matter with me?” For Joel, this reveals the individual and universal aspects of our inherent and potent creativity. Everything is flux. Everything is poetry. His other passions include the intersection of poetry, spirituality, science, and phenomenology shared and disparate in the human experience, along with the transformative power of self-inquiry and introspection through contemplative and meditative practices. Joel holds the belief that the fundamental transformation of individuals and our collective comes through barreling inward, relentlessly asking the questions, “Who am I?” or “What am I” or “What is the matter with me?” The latter, for Joel personally, shattered a false sense of self. Joel was previously voted ‘Buffalo’s Best Poet’, founded WNY’s ‘Ground and Sky Poetry Series’, and created the podcast Unraveling Religion, which explores world mysticism and spirituality. His autobiography, Odyssey of Autumn’s Breath, is in-progress, and combines much of his life’s poetry with prose.

These two practices not the same, but this can be confusing for many.

Westerners, in growing numbers, identify as 'spiritual, but not religious.'

Likewise, there are many who list their religious affiliation as 'other.'  

Atheism and agnosticism are growing, often touting the benefits of community without the perceived negatives that religion and spirituality add—or do not.

What are the implications of spirituality, of religion, or neither?

In late 2022, Henry Cretella's podcast Alchemical Dialogues brought together a panel to disucss religion and spirituality, a discussion with Aude Chesnais, Henry Cretella, Tania Day-Magallon, Margot VanEtten, and Joel David Lesses.

Listen to this panel discussion with five practitioners who are either involved or have been with both spirituality and religion, as they explore their views and experiences.

Aude Chesnais, Ph.D., has encountered various spiritual traditions before finding her family on the Sufi path since 2017. She is a political ecologist and senior researcher for the Native Lands Advocacy Project, and has been working closely with native communities in the USA for the past 10 years on issues of land sovereignty and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, particularly in support of regenerative food-systems transitions. Aude’s work reflects strongly on her positionality as a white researcher working in Indigenous settings. Although her spiritual path has led her on the quest to understand oneness, Aude’s professional path and commitment to social justice constantly reminds her of the real social impacts of human distinctions on their lives. Reconciling these two coexisting realities is Aude’s lifetime quest. Aude received her MA in social and solidarity economics from Université de Haute-Alsace, France and her Ph.D. in sociology from Colorado State University, CO, USA.

Henry Cretella, M.D., is the host of Alchemical Dialogues and co-director of Amber Light International. He is a retired psychiatrist who received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University and his post-graduate training at the University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY. Henry was raised Roman Catholic and later began initial studies in Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as in the martial arts before finding a home in the Sufi lineage of Inayat Khan. Henry no longer practices an exoteric religion, but teaches and guides others in a mystically oriented spirituality that incorporates the wisdom from many traditions and disciplines. For Henry, he believes that we are in an era calling for each of us to find and follow our own unique spiritual path. He also believes that we can connect with others and a power greater than ourselves, in order to further a positive expansion and evolution of human consciousness.

Tania Day-Magallon is an artist born in Mexico City and has collaborated in various art events and exhibits in Chicago, Mexico City, and Rochester, NY. She identifies as Muslim and is a Sufi practitioner. Tania started her art education at a young age, and she attended prominent art institutions in Mexico City. Tania’s art frequently uses symbolism and imagery emphasizing her own cultural identity and spiritual views. Tania became a member of the group formerly known as Women of Color in the Arts (WOC-Art) collaborative, where she curated an art activity and installation titled “Hands of Sorority”. Tania was also commissioned to design the cover of an issue for the academic journal Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies entitled Deterritorializing Frontiers. Tania earned her BA in Visual Arts from SUNY Empire State College, where she continued her studies in visual arts and psychology. She is currently earning her MS in Mental Health Counseling at SUNY Brockport. Tania believes that mental health, spirituality, and the arts are interwoven, and her current work is focused on exploring her roots, the Divine Feminine, and decolonial mental health approaches that include the creative process as a fundamental aspect of human wellbeing.

Margot VanEtten has a wide and varied background in spirituality and meditation, interfaith study and dialogue, martial arts, and ministerial practice including as a lay minister in the Catholic Church for many years. She holds a Master’s degree in Sacred Theology from St. Bernard’s Institute in Rochester, NY. From 2000 to 2019, Margot was the campus minister and director at the Brockport Newman Center where she was involved in ecumenical and interfaith work with the local ministers, student organizations including the Muslim Student Association and Campus Ambassadors, Interfaith campus ministry organizations across the Rochester area, and with the Diocese of Rochester’s Catholic/Orthodox Commission exploring relations with Eastern Orthodox churches. After retiring, Margot began working as a pastoral minister for St. Monica’s Church and Emmanuel Church of the Deaf where she became the first woman who was not a nun to be named Pastoral Associate in the Diocese of Rochester. Prior, she was a sign language interpreter and liaison to the chaplain’s office at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This fits neatly into her early background: Margot grew up in a town on Long Island (Great Neck), which at the time, had a rather diverse religious and cultural population, and it was there that she grew to deeply appreciate the Jewish tradition, as well as her own Christian faith.

Joel David Lesses, who has lived in Nepal and Israel, is a poet expressing the landscape of our existence and capturing the mystical elements of our human being. He believes world religion, poetry, spirituality, and meditation encompass the makeup of our mind and life. The crux of his own journey is the manifestation of questions and answers to his own koan “What is the matter with me?” For Joel, this reveals the individual and universal aspects of our inherent and potent creativity. Everything is flux. Everything is poetry. His other passions include the intersection of poetry, spirituality, science, and phenomenology shared and disparate in the human experience, along with the transformative power of self-inquiry and introspection through contemplative and meditative practices. Joel holds the belief that the fundamental transformation of individuals and our collective comes through barreling inward, relentlessly asking the questions, “Who am I?” or “What am I” or “What is the matter with me?” The latter, for Joel personally, shattered a false sense of self. Joel was previously voted ‘Buffalo’s Best Poet’, founded WNY’s ‘Ground and Sky Poetry Series’, and created the podcast Unraveling Religion, which explores world mysticism and spirituality. His autobiography, Odyssey of Autumn’s Breath, is in-progress, and combines much of his life’s poetry with prose.

Bios

Mike Morde, LMHC, NCC has worked in behavioral healthcare since 2011 and currently runs a private practice in Rochester, NY.  He currently serves on several boards and committees for advocacy and mental health affairs on local and state levels, and is a co-founder of ROC-ACT, an affiliate group in Rochester for the Association for Contextual and Behavioral Science.  More information can be found on Mike's website at mikemordecounseling.com.

Mike Pernot is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor practicing out of Rochester, New York regularly implementing Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction as a way to relate to stress differently and to honor and recognize preverbal senses in a more compassionate way. He has worked in inner city community mental health and substance use disorder settings with adults as well as in pediatric behavioral health. He has maintained a private practice since 2019 while also currently working in an integrated healthcare facility in a Rochester City High School. More information can be found on Mike's website at www.mjplmhc.com.

Bio:

Joel Lesses founded the Education Training Center as a means of counseling people marginalized by trauma, addiction, and psychological distress, and its effects including incarceration, homelessness, and institutionalization. He is dedicated to reframing mental health distress as a potential spiritual marker and existential opportunity. Also, vested in Poetry and Literature as an educator and poet, through writing workshops, poetry roundtables, poetry, and a manuscript. Finally, other passions include the intersection of poetry, spirituality, science, and phenomenology shared and disparate in the human experience, and transformative power of self inquiry and introspection through contemplative and meditative practices explored in his podcast, 'Unraveling Religion' mystical and practical discussions as an exploration of spirituality and its relation to religion and psychology. Joel was nominated and voted previously 'Buffalo's Best Poet'; he has been published in various magazines and publications, founded Ground and Sky Poetry Series, and facilitated numerous poetry workshops. Currently, he is working on an autobiography of poetry and prose entitled 'Odyssey of Autumn's Breath: An American Collection and Life.' He has worked as a healthcare administrator, trainer, facilitator, and consultant, leading the understanding in education treatment and advocacy regarding substance use, mental health, (and medical) issues.

Originally recorded for Amber Light International's Alchemical Dialogues Podcast with Henry Cretella, it is slightly edited in version.

 Bio:

Joy Har­jo, the 23rd Poet Lau­re­ate of the Unit­ed States, is a mem­ber of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hick­o­ry Ground). As a poet, activist, and musician, Joy Harjo’s work has won countless awards. In 2019, Harjo became the first Native American United States Poet Laureate in history and is only the second poet to be appointed for three terms. In addition to her many books of poetry, she has written several books for young audiences and released seven award-winning music albums.

Click here for a list of Joy Harjo's latest books.

Richard Wicka is a Buffalo, N.Y.-based media artist and photographer and the proprietor of "The Home of the Future,"a media access center and production/recording studio based in his Kaisertown home. Wicka has been providing a forum for artists in all media, activists, and everyday citizens of his Western New York community since the mid-1970s. He provides interested parties with technical support, studio time, and production tools free of charge, encouraging them to express themselves in ways that mainstream culture has not historically sanctioned. With the advent of internet radio came ThinkTwice Radio in 2006, offering podcasts to anyone with a subject to discuss and the commitment to produce a regular show. Wicka attended the seminary as an adolescent, then pursued a BA in philosophy from the University at Buffalo. In 1976 he founded Buffalo Paralegal Services. His work has been screened at venues and on television stations around the world. Wicka is a past board president of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. For more information on Richard Wicka, visit hotftv.net.

Bio: 

Mental health advocate, educator, speaker and coach, Karl Shallowhorn, has a proven track record of delivering engaging and informative presentations to wide-ranging audiences across the United States. His combination of lived experience and clinical expertise makes him a unique resource. Karl is the author of Working on Wellness: A Practical Guide to Mental Health, Leadership Through the Lens of the 12 Steps and is the creator of a Mastermind course based on the 12 Step Leadership concept. He has been a featured blogger and writer for BP magazine. Karl has received numerous awards for his work in the mental health field including from the National Federation of Just Communities and the Buffalo Association of Black Social Workers. He has also been selected as a presenter for TedX Buffalo 2021 with his topic being, “African American Men and Mental Health: Crisis or Opportunity.” Karl is a much sought-after speaker and a member of the Black Speakers Network, He is the host of a Facebook Live public affairs and health program sponsored by the Community Health Center of Buffalo. As a person in long-term recovery from bipolar and co-occurring addiction disorder, Karl’s goal is to help people discover their unmet potential and eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness. He has educated diverse audiences, including behavioral health providers, law enforcement, youth, educators, veterans and faith communities, among others.

Gedaliah has been a teacher of Jewish wisdom for over 45 years. His experiences have included a range from traditional yeshivot to Pueblo Indians, Igbo Tribes, China, Netherlands, Mexico and, of course, Israel. Gedaliah has also been involved in the Israeli High-Tech industry since 1995. His classic work - free to the public - is www.thepeoplestalmud.com.

Bio: Reb Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks is a Jewish spiritual teacher and musician. He has been teaching the practice of Presence (meditation, mindfulness) and Judaism since 2006, and founded Torah of Awakening in 2016. He is the author of Kabbalah for Beginners, published by Rockridge Press, and Integral Jewish Meditation – Three Portals of Presence for Spiritual Awakening.

Reb Brian Yosef received s’miha (ordination) as Minister of Sacred Music (Reb Yosef Briah Zohar, Menatzeiakh, Ba’al Tefilah) from Reb Zalman z”l  (2012), Spiritual Teacher and Awakener of Souls  (Morei Rukhani uM’oreir N’shamot) from Shaykh Ibrahim Baba Farajaje (may his secret be sanctified) and Rabbi SaraLeya Schley (2012), certification as Teacher of Jewish Meditation (Moreh L’hitbodedut) from Dr. Rabbi Avram Davis (2004), and holds a Bachelor in Music from the Eastman School of Music (1991).

Bio: Reb Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks is a Jewish spiritual teacher and musician. He has been teaching the practice of Presence (meditation, mindfulness) and Judaism since 2006, and founded Torah of Awakening in 2016. He is the author of Kabbalah for Beginners, published by Rockridge Press, and Integral Jewish Meditation – Three Portals of Presence for Spiritual Awakening.

Reb Brian Yosef received s’miha (ordination) as Minister of Sacred Music (Reb Yosef Briah Zohar, Menatzeiakh, Ba’al Tefilah) from Reb Zalman z”l  (2012), Spiritual Teacher and Awakener of Souls  (Morei Rukhani uM’oreir N’shamot) from Shaykh Ibrahim Baba Farajaje (may his secret be sanctified) and Rabbi SaraLeya Schley (2012), certification as Teacher of Jewish Meditation (Moreh L’hitbodedut) from Dr. Rabbi Avram Davis (2004), and holds a Bachelor in Music from the Eastman School of Music (1991).

About 'Fatha Torch:'  the podcast to help you become the dad you always wish you had. Each episode is an open discussion about fatherhood and the struggles faced as and by Black men in America. Topics include self-love, the child support system, emotional trauma from toxic relationships, societal injustices and reentry after incarceration. 

To listen to Rah and Fatha Torch here: https://www.fathatorch.com

Rashakim 'Rah' Hudson, a father of nine children, artist and founder of Abimilechh Foundation in Rochester, NY, became a father in 1996, and struggled to be a good father or at least better than his own. Rah had struggled with emotional traumas and mental health issues for an extended periods. He was inspired by friends and family members who saw in him in a 'truth as a father' and to establish a fatherhood curriculum and program to connect with other fathers. 'Who is struggling, making common mistakes, and juggling a career, among other things such as their mental health, feelings of anxiety about parenting, and the life of a dad?' Rah has had the privilege of meeting and sharing his real-life experiences and lessons learned with parents worldwide since then.

Sam Floyd is a poet, advocate of those with a wide range of disability and mental health conditions, and a peer with lived experience (i.e., having anxiety and depression). His podcast, Comma 23, creates and builds a safe space to share stories with familiarity and trust. As a poet and person with lived experience, Sam has learned a great deal through the struggles with depression. He displays the ability to discover and reveal grace, through the honest expressions of his personal experience and how, at times, it can feel impossible to do so with anxiety. He is working currently on a manuscript of poetry of his early years.

Hilary N. Weaver, DSW (Lakota) is a Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo (State University of New York). She received her BS from Antioch College in social work with a cross-cultural studies focus and her MSW and DSW from Columbia University. Her teaching, research, and service focus on cultural issues in the helping process with an emphasis on Indigenous populations. Dr. Weaver received funding from the National Cancer Institute to develop and test a culturally-grounded wellness curriculum for urban Native American youth, the Healthy Living in Two Worlds program. She is a member of NASW, Chair-elect of the CSWE board of directors, Global Indigenous Commissioner for IFSW, and currently serves as President of the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators’ Association (formerly American Indian Alaska Native Social Work Educators’ Association). She was inducted as an NASW Social Work Pioneer in 2020 and was named the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Social Worker of theYear in 2020. Dr. Weaver has presented her work regionally, nationally, and internationally including presenting at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations in 2005-2008, 2013-2019, and 2021-2022. She has numerous publications including the text, Explorations in Cultural Competence: Journeys to the Four Directions (2005), the edited book, Social Issues in Contemporary Native America: Reflections fromTurtle Island (2014), Trauma and Resilience in the Lives of Contemporary Native Americans: Reclaiming our Balance, Restoring our Wellbeing (2019), and the edited volume Routledge International Handbook of Indigenous Resilience (2022).

Biography of Graham Sears, born in Buffalo, New York in 1953. His education includes The Nichols School and Liberal Arts at Hobart College, then the University of Buffalo. In 1984 and 1985 studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and have been working artist for 25 years. His work is shown in New York City (Robert Steele) and museums across the United States. Graham is a serious student of philosophy, science the history of ideas and the history of expression. Personally, Graham rejected utterly his Christian upbringing beginning around age of 12. He writes "Haunted by great poetry, music and literature. Life is beautiful, people are beautiful, love is beautiful. Religion is a tragic sexist delusion more responsible for human misfortune than any other single cause, it is niether the source of truth about man, origins or morality nor is it justifiable as a source of comfort despite its' factual absurdity it is in short completely unneccesary and dehumanizing..."

Biography of Graham Sears, born in Buffalo, New York in 1953. His education includes The Nichols School and Liberal Arts at Hobart College, then the University of Buffalo. In 1984 and 1985 studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and have been working artist for 25 years. His work is shown in New York City (Robert Steele) and museums across the United States. Graham is a serious student of philosophy, science the history of ideas and the history of expression. Personally, Graham rejected utterly his Christian upbringing beginning around age of 12. He writes "Haunted by great poetry, music and literature. Life is beautiful, people are beautiful, love is beautiful. Religion is a tragic sexist delusion more responsible for human misfortune than any other single cause, it is niether the source of truth about man, origins or morality nor is it justifiable as a source of comfort despite its' factual absurdity it is in short completely unneccesary and dehumanizing..."

Link for Alchemical Dialogues: https://www.amberlightinternational.org/podcast/ Alchemical Dialogues are live and unscripted conversations recorded on Zoom brought to you by the great folks of Amber Light International. We choose topics from our current social and cultural climate, with an emphasis on humanism and spirituality. 

Bio on Alchemical Dialogues: Joel David Lesses crafts poems about the landscape of our mind and life, capturing the mystical and spiritual elements of being human. He explores our humanness and resilience in the face of true suffering, overcoming these with the transformative power of self-inquiry, introspection, contemplative, and meditative practices. Joel grounds our human experience and spiritual realms in poetry. He has lived in Nepal and Israel, and now resides in Western New York. Joel was previously voted ‘Buffalo’s Best Poet’, founded WNY’s ‘Ground and Sky Poetry Series’, and created the podcast Unraveling Religion, which explores world mysticism and spirituality. His autobiography, Odyssey of Autumn’s Breath, is in-progress, and combines much of his life’s poetry with prose​.​

William Pruitt has been a construction laborer, reference librarian, hospital courier, loading dock receiver, manager in a natural foods collective, assistant editor for Narrative Magazine and for 26 years, teacher of English as a Second Language He is a writer of poetry and narrative fiction as well as a storyteller. His poems and stories have been published in numerous journals and anthologies such as Ploughshares, Country Journal, Otis Nebula, Crack of the Spine Literary Magazine, Midway, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Hypertext, Cottonwood and Finding the Way Home: Poems of Awakening and Transformation (White Pine press). He has two chapbooks from White Pine and FootHills presses, the self-published full-length book of poems Walking Home from the Eastman House, and most recently, The Binding Dance, from Cyberwit.net. Additionally, he has taught storytelling and performed traditional and original tales at hundreds of libraries, schools, art galleries, science centers and other institutions including the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. He and his wife Pam live in Rochester New York, and have a daughter, Cedar, a son, Elliott, and two grandchildren.

Henry Cretella is a retired psychiatrist and an active spiritual guide and teacher.  In addition to a traditional psychiatric practice, he also trained with James Gordon, M.D. in mind-body medicine and incorporated this into his psychiatric teaching.  He spent close to 20 years intensively studying and teaching in the universal sufi tradition of the Indian mystic, Inayt Khan, becoming a senior teacher before deciding to pursue his interestsindependent of any organization.  Henry feels it is important now to integrate what each person finds useful from whatever traditions to which they are exposed as long as this is done respectfully and holistically. Each of us is responsible for creating our own connection with a power greater than ourselves and with each other.  We are now in an era of collaboration and mutual enrichment rather than exclusion, possessiveness, and top-down paternalistic approaches.  

He and his partner Kathleen formed Amber Light International, a non-profit vehicle through which they teach, guide, offer retreats, workshops and classes revolving around mysticism and humanism.  No membership is required.  Though the mystical emphasis is primarily sufi, there are significant elements of other mystical traditions as well, integrated with explorations in psychology, philosophy, science, and medicine to help us understand and better direct our evolution.  He hosts his own podcast, Alchemical Dialogues, through Amber Light.  Check out their offerings at amberlightinternational.org.

Sara Hughes (she/they) is a Relationship Artist who seeks to live in right relationship to all in the Web of Life. Sara's relational work has been primarily focused on improving conditions for young people in the unceded Seneca/Haudenosaunee region of the land currently known as Rochester, NY. More information may be found at https://mama-sara-says.com

Richard Grego is a Philosopher and Historian at Florida State College. His research areas include comparative cosmologies in religion and science, metaphysics and consciousness, and cultural history. His recent publications include studies of environmental thought in the history of American philosophy in “History of Intellectual Culture”, Gandhi’s ethics and Vedanta philosophy in “Gandhi And The World”, Sri Aurobinda’s metaphysics of consciousness in “The Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo” , Abraham Maslows psychology of science and modern scientism in the ‘International Journal of Transpersonal Studies’ (forthcoming) and a forthcoming book (co-authored with Aurobinda Mahapatra)on how conceptions of the mind-body relationship influenced classical political philosophies across cultures.

Regarding Sister Grace, whether at war protests, in advocacy for the homeless, or through initiatives to ensure proper burials for the poor, Sister Miller brought her advocacy work to Rochester a little more than three decades ago when she opened the doors to the homeless shelter House of Mercy. Sister Grace Miller could see that homelessness was a big problem in Rochester, NY, and there simply weren’t enough shelters to meet the need. Sister Grace went to work, and with help from the Sisters of Mercy, she opened a shelter in a small house on Central Park just north of downtown Rochester. This is a conversation about how that happened. Link to House of Mercy http://houseofmercyrochester.org/ and the link to her book, Amazing Grace click here for link to Sister Grace's book

Victoria Ross is Executive Director of the WNY Peace Center since August 2015, and Consultant to the Interfaith Peace Network of WNY, is a social worker and peace activist. Through community building efforts, Vicki helps to #UnitetheStruggles. Through the WNYPC, she organized all the Women’s Marches in Buffalo (the first two both record-breaking rallies), and all conducive to more collaboration and unity in Buffalo and Western New York. Vicki calls out violence wherever it is: including especially state-sponsored, state-permitted, and/or state-excused violence. She emphasizes principles and the Spirit as what we need for radical changes locally, nationally, and internationally - the principles and Spirit of Unarmed Truth and Unconditional Love. (Peace Center link: https://wnypeace.org/wp/)

Alchemical Dialogues are live and unscripted conversations recorded on Zoom by Amber Light International. They choose topics from our current social and cultural climate, with an emphasis on humanism and spirituality. Subscribe to Alchemical Dialogues on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or search for us in your favorite podcast app.

Joel David Lesses' background is in psychology and counseling with other passions including the intersection of poetry, spirituality, science and phenomenology shared and disparate in the human experience, and transformative power of self inquiry and introspection through contemplative and meditative practices. Joel was nominated by Artvoice in 2013 and 2014 Buffalo's Best Poet and won the honor in 2014, he has been published in various magazines and publications, founded Ground and Sky Poetry Series, facilitated numerous poetry workshops.

Maj Ragain was born into a small, southeastern Illinois farm town. Home-tutored and raised on Vernor Lake, he earned a BA in English at Eastern Illinois University, and an MA in English at the University of Illinois. He has been on faculty, off and on, at Kent State University since 1969, where he obtained his PhD in 1990. He is the author of seven chapbooks of poetry and five book-length collections, all of which contribute to Clouds Pile Up in the North: New & Selected Poems. Maj had served for more than thirty years as host to open poetry readings in Kent, monthly, downtown, mentoring hundr​eds​​ of poets through the years.

About Henry Cretella, M.D: he has had a professional career spanning over 40 years along with his spiritual and especially mystical interests. Henry Cretella, M.D and Kathleen FitzPatrick, LCSW co-direct Amber Light International, a non-profit educational/spiritual group. Through it, they offer spiritual guidance, individual and group retreats, workshops, intensive book studies, celebrations and other related experiences. Under the aegis of Amber Light, Alchemical Dialogues (link https://www.amberlightinternational.org/podcast/) are live and unscripted conversations recorded on Zoom, with topics from our current social and cultural climate, with an emphasis on humanism and spirituality.

About Rabbi Micha Odenheimer: 'Born in 1958 in Berkeley California, Micha Odenheimer has been a writer, journalist, Jewish teacher and social activist in Israel since making aliyah 31 years ago. Micha’s life and interests include fields rarely seen in combination. As a rabbi he has written dozens of essays on Judaism the Torah, and social justice, and has reported on trends in Judaism and the Jewish world. Micha has a special interest in Jewish mysticism and Hasidism.'

Exploring alternatives to psychosis, from 2014 as Crazywise was nearing completion, Phil and Joel talk of spirituality, shamanism and healing. Phil and Joel talk about the gifted (i.e., those who exhibit Shamanic potentic through hearing voices and visions) and their relation to mental health distress, our Western cultures treatment, and the traditional or indiginous view of these markers as a sensitivity and gift.

Biography

Phil Borges, has been documenting indigenous cultures and striving to create an understanding of the challenges they face. Phil has spoken at multiple TED talks; including TED in 2007, TEDxRainier in 2012 and TEDxUMKC in 2013 and hosted television documentaries for Discovery and National Geographic. 

Richard Wicka is a Buffalo, N.Y.-based media artist and photographer and the proprietor of "The Home of the Future,"a media access center and production/recording studio based in his Kaisertown home. Wicka has been providing a forum for artists in all media, activists, and everyday citizens of his Western New York community since the mid-1970s. He provides interested parties with technical support, studio time, and production tools free of charge, encouraging them to express themselves in ways that mainstream culture has not historically sanctioned.  With the advent of internet radio came ThinkTwice Radio in 2006, offering podcasts to anyone with a subject to discuss and the commitment to produce a regular show.

Lisa was a Psy. D. student in Clinical Psychology with a Masters in Existential Humanist Psychology, poet, mother, student of Philosophy and English and artistian. 

As a medical doctor and healer, Dr. Abuelaish's life is a tireless effort to broaden our human understanding that the differences between people are much smaller than the similarity. Joel and Dr. Abuelaish find common ground in exploring ethics and respect in common understanding, found in all the world's spiritual traditions and all faiths including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity revealed in this episode. His book is entitled, "I Shall Not Hate." 

Reverend Mary Elita Masters has been involved with Unity for over 30 years, since being ordained in 2002, she has served as the Senior Minister at Unity of Buffalo, New York, a position she calls 'a Divine Appointment if there ever was one.' While in Buffalo, Rev. Mary’s ministry has engaged the Appreciative Inquiry process and completed the Transformation Experience as part of its journey to grow and evolve as a vibrant and thriving ministry. Mary’s passion for the Unity movement has been expressed through her service on the Eastern Region Board and now the Unity Worldwide Ministries Board.  Mary served five years on the Eastern Region Board, including four years as the regional president from 2005-09.  She has been a member of the Unity Worldwide Ministries Board of Trustees since 2009 and had the honor of serving as Chair of the Board in 2013-14.  In that role, she ordained the graduating class of Unity Institute ministers and gave the commencement address at the 2014 Unity Institute Graduation ceremonies.  Prior to ordination, Mary was a Licensed Unity Teacher at Unity of Chicago.Her career prior to ministry was in college athletics, serving as an Assistant Commissioner for the Big Ten Conference (and yes, she still is a big fan of college athletics – go Blue!).  She has a master's degree in managerial communications from Northwestern University and is also a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Richard Wicka is a Buffalo, N.Y.-based media artist and photographer and the proprietor of "The Home of the Future,"a media access center and production/recording studio based in his Kaisertown home. Wicka has been providing a forum for artists in all media, activists, and everyday citizens of his Western New York community since the mid-1970s. He provides interested parties with technical support, studio time, and production tools free of charge, encouraging them to express themselves in ways that mainstream culture has not historically sanctioned. In the early 1990s Wicka collaborated with Buffalo performers Ron Ehmke and Greg Sterlace on cable access series (Snap Judgments and The Greg Sterlace Show, respectively) for the city’s new public access station, which led in subsequent years to The HOTF TV Show, a long-running program with rotating hosts and formats, and then to The Five Minute Video Series, an ongoing project in which a diverse array of guests from throughout the community are invited to tell a story that lasts 5 minutes or less. With the advent of internet radio came ThinkTwice Radio in 2006, offering podcasts to anyone with a subject to discuss and the commitment to produce a regular show. Wicka attended the seminary as an adolescent, then pursued a BA in philosophy from the University at Buffalo. In 1976 he founded Buffalo Paralegal Services. His work has been screened at venues and on television stations around the world. Wicka is a past board president of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. For more information on Richard Wicka, visit hotftv.net.