What would it take for us to see the ecological and cultural crises sweeping the planet as possible harbingers of a higher transformation and metamorphosis, a second global Renaissance? Big economic and political change can be traumatic, for individuals and communities. What if the global upheavals shaking our modern way of life actually are part of a natural cycle in evolution, a necessary correction in aiding the appearance of updated human potential?Considering the possibility of a new global Renaissance could also mean revisiting and questioning some of the pillars of modernity that have marked social and cultural progress. Can the individual, the “I” - centric, embrace a new form of community and shared human experience? What about a religion of the future, centered on inner development rather than dogma, to bring people together with a knowing that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves?A personal and collective metamorphosis could revive the sacred nature of art, which throughout history has been an expression of humanity and a shared experience of a universal impulse.We explore the many questions and perceptions about a possible new global Renaissance in the first part of a Portals conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French - Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation.Among their insights:Religion is important because we won’t move beyond current crises through the lens of secular modernity where the ego is God; I think, therefore I am, and it’s all about my wants. We can integrate the questioning that came with modernity, but questioning in the service of truth. If we question just for the sake of questioning, it becomes a destructive force.We’re still discovering what the new emergence may look like, when it will appear, and its various expressions; yet we cannot not respond to that summoning upon our life.Belief is not faith. You can believe in anything, in the illusion and trap of your own mind. Faith is based on direct experience of something beyond you, of yourself as a human being.Ultimately you need something much bigger than yourself to transcend the problem of individuality and “me, me, me” that modernity gave us. A great learning from post - modernity is to integrate multiple perspectives; they’re a component of a greater pict ure, which is seeking of the truth.We are children of modernity, and I know the future is much bigger than me and demands me to grow. For the future to have a chance, a real shot, I need to go beyond myself.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “Second renaissance, I think, is to put a name onto what we're collectively experiencing, which is the death of modernity, and the birth of something to come, which we don't know yet. And that moment of death and birth is the second renaissance, like the first Renaissance, the first Renaissance appeared after great moment of difficulty of hardship with the Black Death, where many people died. And they could not say that they were going through the Renaissance.” (Rufus) “I remember asking a Zen teacher once, when do people change, I asked him, he said when they have to. So the point was that people normally needed quite serious crisis of some kind of fortunate personal life before they take on deep change. And similarly, as a civilization, the sad thing is, I think that we're going to have to confront a very significant crisis to really change.” (Rufus) “But art and religion are sacred, right? You can't touch them. But why can't we touch them? Because we're trying to say there's something of the essence that is untouchable, that is eternal. But somehow along the line, what becomes untouchable might be the words, rather than the essence, and or the cultural frame in which that religion was born.” (Sylvie) “People have a lot of maybe even collective trauma about the word religion. And it's important to heal that word. In using it I want to reconquer this word ‘religion’, which is to relink ourselves to each other and to something greater than ourselves. And I think art plays a huge part in that, because art is to express our humanity, what makes us human. We can so easily forget what makes us human. So I think it's essential to reconnect.” (Sylvie) “The dance is sometimes in describing all this stuff, it can seem really like wonderful, but a bit magical. It's like, you know, we need to go from "I" to "we". Sure! Yeah, and one big question is like, how do they connect? How do they dance between those, how do you actually dwell in those? That's a really rich question which even Buddha, you know even some of the great traditions don't really have a sense of like, how do you organize society? It's a very relative question, you know, what does it actually look like? You know, what does production look like? Buddha very wisely didn't talk about this.” (Rufus) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteLife Itself

With so much interest in creating a new type of collective living experience, it’s reasonable to wonder why the “we” space is seen to be so important in supporting the next big leap in evolution. What can’t the individual alone — me, just being me — accomplish? There is a deepening awareness that a new future, a transforming universal possibility, is revealing itself both through individuals and a collective experience: new configurations of people living, working, and creating together. Small and intimate; networks; experimental.The “me” is a fundamental step in personal development. Becoming a catalyst for a larger universal possibility isn’t just a solo act; it needs the power of collective intelligence and integrated capacity. Plus, the natural fulfillment of humans connecting and being together.“Collective” also may not be the best word to describe people coming together in a mutual purpose and vision that respects and allows the individual to be a “me,” inside a much more potent connected creative potential.To help us explore the many faces and possibilities of communal endeavors, Aviv Shahar is joined by Portals friend, author, consultant and Emmy Award-winning documentary film director Tucker Walsh, and musician Turquoise. Among their insights:In a very simple, practical way, it’s about being the change we want to see in the world; to show up in the way we want others to mirror; bringing the awareness that from a certain perspective everything in life is relational.An ecology of practice, whatever method, can offer increased capacity — the intentional wielding of the soma of the spirit, mind, body, soul, and great chain of being.We see the reintegration of the blessing realms — pursued since ancient times — now available in an open-source form for anyone who makes themselves available. Portals is an opportunity to decode, narrate, experience, and play together.  When we are down, confused, and depressed, it’s not that evolution stopped caring; it possibly reflects the accelerated and potentized nature of what’s emerging.The rise of the intellect, the dawn of the modernity project, and the myth of separation, are still a predominantly active actuality in the DNA of our mindsThis conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I call it sometimes a mystery seed. You don't know what's in the seed, but if you kind of wait and look and nourish it and grow, oh, look, it's going to be this thing, and then it turns into a flower, and then maybe the flower was a butterfly, and then, or, you know, it kind of moves and shifts and transforms. As long as you kind of oscillate on the edge there and kind of float on the edge as much as possible and get good and flow as a group, you can kind of move it forward, but be in relation to what you're adding to it or what we're adding to it.” (Turquoise) “Well, to stage us with the polarity that you introduced and build on this for a minute because yes, there is a way to not be part of the evolutionary process. A good provocation is a good reframe, and at the same time, in the imagery that you offered earlier, there are those people who gathered at the gathering, those people who stayed at home and did not show up for the gathering, and then there were those people who stayed in the gathering in some other periphery, and they were those who stepped into the hot tub experience.” (Aviv)“I think the risk of overly creating a menu, anything like this is how you make this recipe, is that it then becomes a fixed thing, and what I'm more interested in is, I guess, having an infinite number of recipes and then being like, well, how can we crisscross combine the recipes and not necessarily or entirely as a predetermined set course like you would when you go to a restaurant, but a sense of, like, what if the people that came to your restaurant sat down with them and you had a conversation and you said, Hey, how are you right now? How are you showing up? What was your day like today? What's your experience with food?” (Tucker) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteTucker WalshTurquoise. 

Imagine a process of healing that is powerful enough to restore wellbeing and transform a life, a family, a community with just a one-degree shift in perception or attention; a state of health and wholeness not defined by medicine or ecology, culture or location.In a time of cultural and environmental upheaval, the natural and regenerative paths to relief of anxiety, pain, and a sense of separation offer us deeper awareness of the true nature of healing — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. A healthy and balanced mind and body can be the natural outcome of a life rooted in the understanding that wholeness and healing are a human birthright, inherent in our design and purpose. The transforming perception of our natural integration and potential can be the journey of a lifetime, or it can happen in a single moment. In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by two practitioners with extensive experience in the process of restoration, wholeness, and healing: Lonny Jarrett, author, scholar, and teacher of East Asian medicine who has practiced acupuncture and herbology for more than 40 years, and Alexander Love, an acupuncturist, life coach, and cranial - sacral therapist, who brings a unique integration of modalities. Lonny and Alexander discuss their understanding and life-long experience with the healing process, including personal stories of trauma and regeneration. Among their insights:The main medicine the world needs now is to transcend ego and recognize our dependent arising, our intimate relationship with each other, and the biosphere in all things.We are trained from the youngest age to take everything personally, to know ourselves as separate individuals, in denial of the subtle spiritual dimensions of experience.We have a choice. It doesn't start with waiting for the other person; it starts with me. Maybe I get a little curious instead of self-righteous. Healing is an act of inquiry; it’s being present.How do we unfold the past in a way that is vibrant, awake, and full so the virtues and wisdom within those experiences of pain can inform our life today and become fertile ground?Each person is a portal into the one conscious. When we make a choice for the truth, even in the face of our own conditioning, it's the cosmos evolving.It’s an emergent process where everything frozen in time is released into the currency of this moment now; as if working with one person is working with the entire system, and potentially the whole world.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “So honestly, I can remember the moment when I was about three or four years old and my mother read me Bambi, and Bambi’s mother gets shot by a hunter, and I burst into tears, and she said when you grow up you can be a veterinarian, and I said, what's that? And they said, a doctor who takes care of sick animals, and righ t then and there I knew that I was going to go into medicine, and of course the medicine I eventually went into was not veterinary medicine, but I knew my whole life that that's what I was here for and that's what I was going to be doing.” (Lonny)“In a way, history isn't a burden, and it isn't a hauntology or a ghost that sort of grips us from beyond the grave. But it's been brought into the present as the cultivation of virtue from having faced fragment, and fragments realized its own nature as wholeness.” (Alexander)“So we can have gross levels of illness, and we need to take responsibility for the dimensions of them that we can, so getting enough sleep, hydrating, eating the best food we can, exercising, this sort of thing, but when it comes to the subtle and the very subtle dimensions, I would define illness as a misappropriation of attention. A conditioned identification with finite and materialistic dimensions of the self that perpetuate the illusion of separation and, from the perspective of wholeness, separation as pain.” (Lonny)“So for me, the starting point is a recognition that the past, the present, and the yet-to-be-fully-formed future are all right here, right now, the last 14 billion years, with all of their glory and all of their suffering. It's right here, right now. Not theoretically or philosophically, but it's unfolding at this moment. Some of it is these hidden pockets of history that we don't see. Some of it is visible, like the fact that I am able to speak in a language that took 1000s and 1000s of years to develop, and it's still a visible expression of something that has come previously.” (Alexander) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s Website

Just how important are relationships, really, to our health and happiness? What about to our sense of emotional and spiritual growth and fulfillment? We can trace the influence of intimacy on human development through evolution all the way back to the Big Bang. Humans are social in a way unlike anything else in the universe. The complexity, beauty and possibility of the many forms of human relationships have been a lifelong passion and pursuit of Dr. Keith Witt, pioneering integral psychotherapist, author and teacher. We met Dr. Keith in the first part of his conversation with Aviv Shahar, on the hero’s journey from “Trauma to Transcendence”. In part two of their conversation, Dr. Keith traces his own healing journey through early trauma, and the influence of the martial arts in his embrace of the complementary natures of the warrior and the healer. He reveals the inspiration behind his teaching and writing, and the experiences that helped form his core understanding that “everything is relationships”. Along the way, Dr. Keith also has deepened awareness of many dimensions of the human’s higher, universal nature and the ongoing evolution of consciousness. Among his insights, professional and personal:If we feel shame, return to the core value and either follow it, discard it, or modify and grow it to better fit what we believe is beautiful, good and true in the present moment. This is how moral systems grow.Research shows that having a secure primary relationship — taking care of your friendship and your love affair, resolving issues with each other — leads to the happiest, healthiest humans and families.In revealing the power of belief, research shows that the form of treatment isn’t as crucial as the therapist or practitioner doing something they believe in; clients or patients get healthier.Is there a spiritual impulse in teaching or therapy? To the extent you understand the secrets of the universe, and don't share them, you suffer. It’s distressing not to share what we believe to be effective.Attunement is the organizing principle; it’s being aware with acceptance and caring intent, first of ourselves — our breath, sensations, emotion, thoughts, judgment and desire.Fields exist outside of us that send flashes of insight through dreams and ideas. We access them when we surrender ourselves to service and to the beautiful, good and true.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “And weirdly, having a deep understanding of people's interiors makes you a better martial artist. Martial artists are very peaceful. It would require an awful lot to have me do violence to another person. So they're complementary systems.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “I enjoy teaching, and when I taught, people really enjoyed hearing about it, which was very gratifying. Some of it was just ego. But most of it wasn't. Most of it was that to the extent you understand the secrets of the universe and don't share them, you suffer. I was distressed about not sharing this stuff.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “If you reverse engineer our success with each other it tracks with the best social research that's been done on this which is by John Gottman and his group up in Seattle. It's pretty straightforward. You know a couple who cherish each other and are grateful for each other tend to do great. If they cherish each other and are grateful for each other and they put attention into their friendship and their love affair, intention into their friendship and their love affair, and then their ability to resolve and to heal injuries - they do great. They are the masters of intimacy, and they describe themselves as happy and they're happier and they're healthier.” (Dr. Keith Witt) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteDr. Keith’s Website

Is it a big stretch to think of struggling with trauma as part of a hero’s journey? Or is it integral for the hero’s transformation? How do we metabolize feeling weak or diminished by fear, anxiety and pain from traumatic events that at times can seem beyond our ability to cope? What if we understood that even the willingness to face a trauma will stimulate the parts of the brain responsible for resilience and, over time, build strength and courage? Advances in neuroscience have shed light on some of the brain’s hidden functions in times of pain and trauma, and the resulting influences on our responses and behavior. Moving through the phases of healing trauma is what builds the road to our eventual transformation. We apply emerging new wisdom and strength to reconcile and reshape our experiences with trauma, and perhaps inspire others on their own healing odyssey. A real hero’s journey. Unraveling the nature of trauma and its healing is the focus of this conversation between Aviv Shahar and Dr. Keith Witt, an internationally known integral psychotherapist, teacher and author of 15 books. Keith has conducted over 70,000 therapy sessions, written hundreds of blog posts, and appeared on numerous podcasts, including his own, The Shrink and The Pundit, and Witt & Wisdom.Among their insights:Conventional wisdom has been we’re all born equal and then the environment shapes us. Research has proved that to be entirely and dramatically wrong.Trauma is a natural part of the experience of life; it’s completely integral to the development journey. There are ways to work with trauma to facilitate our growth.A human being accessing their inherent “superpowers” to love and grow will get better, become more loving, and grow on whatever line they’re investing in. That’s the gift of consciousness.Once you lie to yourself, you do violence to yourself; you lie to somebody else, you do violence to another person. That’s not real compassion; it’s a defensive state masquerading as compassion.The essence of trauma learning has been being a victim and not having power. The essence of resilience is having agency, and living as if the rest of humanity are your companions, not your enemies.The culture is self-organizing away from comprehensive communication and towards confrontation. But conversation produces progress and solves problems.I am hopeful about humanity because all across the world people are dialed in, not just to spirituality, but also science, and to vast networks of incredible help and resources. It’s a great time to be alive.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “Anybody who does psychotherapy works with trauma, and there's been wonderful systems generated in the last 30 years for treating trauma, normalizing it, studying it, and so on. There's been a lot of neurobiology research, and I study a lot. It's one of the pleasures of my life to study systems, and I practice a lot of therapy, and I realized that the field didn't realize that trauma work proceeds through four stages. People intuitively understood it. If you talk to anybody in the field, say, Bessel van der Kolk or Francine Shapiro, some of those people if you teased it out, they would basically end up talking about these four stages, and I felt like an integral understanding of those four stages was important for psychotherapists because the principles are different in different stages.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “So, when you are practicing awareness with acceptance and caring intent for your interior experience, you're activating circuits in your frontal cortex, particularly your right frontal cortex, that are self-regulatory circuits. If you do that daily for a month, stem cells will divide into daughter cells and become integrative neurons that hardwire self-regulatory circuits from the front of the cerebral cortex back to the amygdala and hippocampus. So, all contemplative work creates the neural territory to be able to self-regulate. That's an important central feature of many systems.” (Dr. Keith Witt) “Dialed in means I feel comfortable in my life; I feel in charge of doing what I need to do; I feel confident and competent; I feel like my life works for me and I work for my life. My relationships are working for me, and so on. It's just that I'm in harmony with my life dialed in, integral mindfulness.” (Dr. Keith Witt) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteDr. Keith’s Website

Isn’t it curious the only species on the planet that appears concerned about or pursues the notion of “wholeness” is the human? Other highly intelligent and social animals — such as dolphins and elephants — show no evidence of feeling an inner fragmentation, separation from purpose, or impulse to connect with a source of higher intelligence. The comparison might be a bit humorous, but it’s a uniquely human feeling to have somehow become separated from the regenerative and creative forces that should naturally flow through and connect us with each other, the planet, and cosmos. Defining wholeness is a challenge: integrating mind and body? The physical and spiritual? The personal and the universal? Or is it found in being joined to something greater? Why is a feeling of separation so common? Perhaps it’s the accumulated pain and trauma, personal and collective; technology in many forms replacing human faculties and intimacy; an education system that churns out interchangeable parts for vast economic engines, instead of naturally aware and aligned human beings. In this conversation, we explore these inquiries and more. Aviv Shahar is joined by two next-gen leaders pioneering practical tools and assistance for creating less fragmented lives. Jenn Reilly founded Raising Wholeness, a new paradigm for parenting in wholeness, and Forrest Wilson, co-founder of Light in Action, an “incubator for consciousness” supporting projects and passion on the journey of wholeness.Among their insights:Permission was unlocked in the scientific revolution to separate and favor the exterior objective measure over interior forms of knowing. We need to reintegrate and become whole in ourselves. We’re being initiated to give birth to the more universal potential of human life, which says all that happened until now was childhood and youth; we’re just reaching adulthood in the universe. In these practical endeavors is the communal and network effect of more people and communities connecting and plugging and playing in the spaces of wholeness. Education is creating ecosystems for happy, healthy and fulfilled human beings to thrive, to cultivate their curiosities, to pursue their passions, creating a more beautiful life. By evolving and developing yourself, you become the best role model for your child. There is something new in the universe birthing itself through us, needing to emerge through the struggle of this time, through contradiction, through being triggered with your child.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “There's the pieces of just how we're showing up and then there's also I feel the implications of how we were conditioned and raised in our culture, our society, and even in our home unit and the ways that we are born whole, born into this beautiful being, and in the ways that we've been fragmented through trauma, through just seeking attention, seeking acceptance and we cut off parts of ourselves and there are so many different layers to how that's happening in our consciousness.” (Jenn) “So if you look at conventional reality, if anyone is familiar with startup incubators, what we did was, my business partners and I created an incubator for people who are pursuing the path to wholeness, who are on the journey to wholeness and in that journey to wholeness they have a project, a purpose project, a passion project, and a way that supports themselves financially. That is cohesiveness in the being and becoming a more whole journey.” (Forrest) “The moment we realize our sapiens - ness, we step through into homo universalis. But I wonder personally if that doesn't necessarily, since we are interconnected and nothing is separate in the whole, that does not necessarily cause an upshift for all other species on the planet in the universe, and so what I wonder is that when you speak about the oak tree, when you speak about the other animals in the world, we're the only organism that orients this way.” (Aviv) “I guess just one thing that's still alive in me is that there is something around what Forrest was saying that developmental lens and understanding exactly... Because there's the piece of how we are supporting different developmental stages and that awareness, having that knowledge in your pocket as a parent is so relieving. It is so relieving to know that the three-year-old is still building the neural pathways to hold multiple emotions at the same time.” (Jenn) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteRaising WholenessLight in Action

The popular concept of emotional intelligence only begins to scratch the surface of understanding the true nature and power of the human emotion. Emotions can uplift and heal and transform a life or relationship. They can also inflict and become self-destructive; lead us to either our salvation or downfall. Some people believe the emotion plays a central role in human evolution. Why is an energy so powerful and personal often so unpredictable and seemingly hard to manage? A clue is in the word: “emotion” comes from a Latin derivative meaning “energy in motion”. Emotion isn’t static; it creates energetic pathways connecting people with themselves, with one another, with their communities, and the universe. The real emotion problem is not emotion itself; it’s how we use the most powerful energy naturally generated by our human design. In this new episode of “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Sha har and David Price Francis delve deeper into the nature, mystery, and larger potential of human emotions. The conversation adds a new chapter to the unfolding story of the human predicament.Among their insights:A species guarantees its continuance more through tribal arrangements than just individual DNA. It’s the logic of why human emotions are a self - preservation technology.The emotion that evolved in humans engenders the capacity to care, share, and bond — the qualities that nudge and lead us to collaborate and work together.There are dimensions in the universe that need higher human sensitivity and resonance. It’s logical the universe would support the emergence of compassionate life that's more like itself than not.Summoning the emotion is engaging the most powerful energy we have access to. It can be overwhelming if not used wisely. The balance is found in living in harmony with the emotion.We're not victims of our emotions; we can elevate our understanding and use the emotions as objects of purpose inside the theater of our experience.Emotional energy can be very potent healing; seeking with our minds to harness the heart-centered energy and move together to a particular purpose, like healing another person.This conversation builds on concepts and insights first explored in The Energy Problem. It is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “One way I look at human beings is as having three major channels or pipes for energy. There are three major expressions: energy in, energy out, and we're always in process. So those are the three things I look at in us: we have mental energy; we have emotional energy, whatever that is, and we're going to get into it; and we have physical energy, which is inside the physical energy.” (David)“It's so when there's an empathy flow, there's very much that connection between the two people between whom the energy is flowing, and there's a very interesting difference there between the person whose energy primarily flows about themselves for themselves, which is more where we get these expressions like narcissistic c rage or narcissistic display, and so they're still emotions, but the emotions stay inside that person's field and are held for them, and this is where you get the person who's able to act emotionally.” (David) “So a compass is something that goes 360 degrees. So it's almost like you take the compass and you have your center point, and you can draw a circle, and the idea of real compassion is that it doesn't just go to a person who's your friend, or it doesn't go to a particular cause. But to release suffering in the world, it takes a 360-degree approach, like the sun shining on everybody at once. So that, to me, is very much the seat of that devotional practice, and we're both wearing what appears to be what looks like regulation blue.” (David) “So you can take your emotional fuel and burn it up very rapidly with a bout of hot anger, you can be in the car, and someone comes past you, and you start yelling, and you go into road rage. But then, is that the best use of that fuel? And I think that's a kind of wisdom about the person, so I have the right to it. Well, yes, you do. You have the right to eat coal. You have the right to do many things. With that permission, you can go for it. But just have that pause. Is it really the best thing to do for your life? Or is there a better way to use it?” (David) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEnergy Worlds

Many of us are getting robbed every day, whether we know it or not. We just may be robbing ourselves, too, without fully understanding the consequences of our behavior. It could be through ignorance, lack of attention, or bad decisions. Whatever the cause, we’re getting robbed of the very energy that enables good health, inspiration, and possibility of higher connection, all to the detriment of our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. What do we mean? Throughout Portals we explore the energetic nature of human life: our physical systems, mind and body balance, creativity, and natural connections to higher intelligence and expanding awareness, all depend on different levels and natures of energy. Every feeling, idea, and thinking pattern carries energetic potential; we are continually generating or consuming energy from internal and external sources. But what quality of energy? Nourishing or depleting, toxic or regenerative, we can choose. In the latest chapter of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis guide us through a deeper look at our energetic nature and the five basic fuels we use to generate energy. They explore the various energy ‘robbers’ that can leave us susceptible to imbalance and ill health.We live between two worlds: the visible and matter; and the invisible and energy. We need to understand both, and the purpose or direction in which we travel in both worlds. These core self-insights — how to manage our energy, our cycles, our emotions — ought to be part of the knowledge of a life, but are usually left out of education. As the size of the energy problem and challenge grows, new energy potentials and energy sources are coming online to help us re-naturalize to planetary and universal frequencies. The invitation is to reground in our natural system; to become more aware of how we consume each of the five basic types of energy and become more intelligent about the value of sleep. It’s the predicament of being addicted to the easy fast solution, easy fast food, easy fast energy sources. We develop our willpower by growing our will not power — what we say ‘no’ to. It expands what we can say ‘yes’ to, and uses our energies in a more purposeful way.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “My understanding of the word ‘ education ’ in its origin is that it comes from the Latin word "educare," which apparently means to lead out from inside. ” ( David ) “Well, I think beginning today because it's always beginning in the now, what do we call a human with no energy? But I thought of a dead body. That's what a human is — without any energy whatsoever — and even then, there's a process of decomposition that causes certain kinds of energies to leave. So we compose and we decompose as human beings, right? But for a human being with no energy input, you can say the closest thing to it is a coma. But when you go beyond that stage, we move into the process we call death. So death is the departure of the energies that keep us alive. ” (David) “If somebody drinks polluted liquid over a period of time, they're going to disrupt their system through the liquid food. If someone starves themselves of oxygen, or if you've taken yourself too far away from a source of full spectrum lighting, that's where in the northern climates now they have special light boxes to emit full spectrum lighting that they found brings greater harmony and benefit to the human system. So we can cause that erosion and fragmentation through environmental reasons. ” (David) “So I think of the idea of the ‘ Sun Salutation ’ in yoga; it's not a posture, although it is as well, but it's the idea of going out into the sun, being in the sunshine, and getting nutrients from the sun. So this would be structuring our lives for maximal nutrition at four levels, and then in the fifth level, it will be being aware of what we're introducing ourselves to. So something about our eyes - it's very interesting.” (David) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEnergy Worlds

What is the power of a motivating purpose in one’s life? What happens when our chosen purpose seems to run out? What do we do when the expected fulfillment at the high point of a career or other life quest feels empty, less thrilling, than anticipated? How do you recalibrate when the change you worked so hard to catalyze has a timeline that doesn’t match our expectations? For example, consider what we call the corporate refugees, executives who ticked all the right boxes, made the money, but still find something missing; or veteran change makers and leaders, who might wonder if their driving energy has been used up or burned out. How can any one of us, at any stage in our lives, discover a sense of renewal that propels us forward in harmony with an evolving world and universe?In this conversation, Aviv Shahar explores the many levels and expressions of human purpose with Holly Woods, author, consultant, transformation leader and founder of the Emergence Institute. Holly works directly with people from all paths and levels of accomplishment to discover and re-enliven their purpose and passion. She generously uses her own journey of success and shadow to illuminate a life of self-discovery and change. Among their insights:Living ‘on purpose’ is to look squarely at your greatest sorrows and joys, find the connection between them over time, and see they are flip sides of the same coin. Neither is right or wrong; both illuminate who you really are.Many leaders in the transformational arena spend their lives looking, unconsciously, for the next inspiration but are afraid to move out of their existing structures.Enlightenment isn’t a destination. We are in an epochal shift with an evolving story; we are forever pushing the void, the frontier, in an on-the-move realization.A form of burnout is doing something in a similar way consistently over time; when the world shifts and it no longer works, we don't know how to adapt.Veteran changemakers will struggle in a transition as their world shifts: they've gained perspective, but their capacity hasn't expanded; another version of themselves wants to emerge.Next-gen leaders can grow impatient with the pace of change, and the impatience can be externalized as righteousness. It’s also the impatience of a person with themselves.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “It's the belief that has haunted us: that we are individuals making our way through work and effort, and that sort of linear cause-and-effect mechanistic version of life separates us from the whole and limits our ability to work with on behalf of and in receipt of the energy that's available to us.” (Holly) “Very important point, and the fulfillment that comes earlier in life when in earlier stages of human development is more concrete, more real-world material world items, and then we move into more intellectual social expectations, and then at some point as we're developing as humans, we gain capacity to see beyond those things, and it becomes more about the internal fulfillment. So earlier fulfillment is usually related being externally oriented, with their family culture, community, corporate, and peer group expectations about what success looks like, and generally, we think of being fulfilled when I've achieved those expectations, so it is a very different kind of fulfillment, and when we wake up to what's inside of us, our internal milieu, we say, ‘ Oh, there's something I'm missing; I'm maybe happy sometimes, but I don't have joy. I don't have a life force; it's missing from me, ’ and when people wake up, they really have a deep desire and longing for that, and I can speak more about what the longing actually is, but it's really at a later stage of development.” (Holly) “Sometimes they have successful businesses, sometimes not, and sometimes they come to me after they've been struggling for a long time. But not always; sometimes they're in the middle of their business and it's going well, and they scaled, and they're like, "Oh, I have all these things going, but it doesn't mean anything to me anymore.” They're kind of a mix of the other two categories. They often have figured out how to be successful in the material world.” (Holly ) “I used to tell my clients, ‘ We're going to do these things, we're going to discover your purpose, we're going to do shadow work, and then it's going to be like magic. ’ I didn't even know how to explain it. I don't know what happens, but it just does, and it is magic. It shows up a lot, and now I understand it more fully. So, synchronicity is a huge part of my work, and I now understand it, and it really is alignment, which means that discovery through the shadow work helps resolve become clearer and more free of those limitations and constrictions, and then taking small steps into the world to invite in opportunities and, boom, it shows up. It still feels like magic. But I now understand fully how to create that opportunity for my clients. So, it is synchronistic for the vast majority of my clients. We get to a place, and there's usually a session where something happens there, like all kinds of awareness has happened, and then people in other places start showing up.” (Holly) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteEmergence Institute

We’re about to get a close-up look at how a creative and successful business leader is using his remarkable experience and passion to transform the civic and business landscape. It’s the latest chapter in an accomplished life dedicated to creating positive change in diverse communities. In his 22-year career at Microsoft, Robbie Bach led the creation and development of Xbox, the highly popular and successful video gaming system, in addition to other critical creative and leadership roles. In 2015 he published his first book, Xbox Revisited: A Game Plan for Corporate and Civic Renewal, and in 2021 he published his first novel, The Wilkes Insurrection. Robbie continues his leadership as consultant, catalyst, and speaker to civic, corporate, and university communities. In this conversation with Aviv Shahar, Robbie describes his current endeavors as “civic engineering,” the work we do every day to improve and transform our communities. He traces his personal journey from corporate leader to bridge builder — bringing together polarized political leaders in Washington, D.C., by creating new opportunities for working together. Robbie has an insider’s perspective on the role of technology and media in culture and communities, and is open about the religious faith that helps shape his worldview. Robbi e shares with Aviv some of his insights and advice, including:The American experiment is about the middle — the bell curve. When the bell curve gets torn apart by extremes and polarities, we’ve got a problem.My generation has to take accountability for allowing this cynicism to seep into our society through lack of strong leadership. We are handing the next generation a world in a not very good situation.I look to people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and say it's going to be your world. If the environment is going to be fixed and we can still keep the lights on, you have to figure out how to do that.Grace is recognizing what's going on around us, what's happening to us, and knowing there have been purpose and achievement along the way; then being grateful for the good and the bad that have shaped our lives.If you're dealing with anxiety, find a way to talk about it and turn it into something productive; find a friend, a counselor, a coach, a spouse, whoever it is; don't be shy about asking for help.The ability to overcome is one of the most important character traits people can develop.Tragedy is a place where we learn and grow; it's where we triumph. It's where we figure ourselves out. It's where we say, Who am I? What am I doing?Take the long road, have a plan, and then know it’s going to change and be excited about it. You might have to zag a bit to be successful or get started, but that's okay.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.TWEETABLE QUOTES “The other thing that I think has changed is the whole context of media. I'll say, in particular, social media, but broadcast media has fallen into the same trap, where all of our leaders feel like they're on 24/7. And the problem with that a) God knows who wants to live that life, that's a separate problem. But the bigger problem with that is, if you're on 24/7, in that world, you're constantly trying to make political points. And the fact is, when you got most of these people away from the cameras and away from the keyboard, they're actually pretty reasonable people.” (Robbie) “When I talk at universities, I do a lot of guest lecturing. And usually, that's business strategy, leadership, the things that you know, come from my Microsoft and Xbox experience. But I always at the end, talked about three things. I talked about faith, I talked about perseverance. And I talked about serendipity.” (Robbie) “In a dialogue, we're one of the characters here of the words, we must all overcome our fear. We must proclaim the true meaning of Islam. We must make people understand that Islam means peace. And she says, I may not practice all aspects of Islam, but it forms the fabric of my principles and beliefs. It shapes who I am and how I care for others. Islam is a faith-based in modesty, forgiveness, tolerance, and morality. So when I read this, in this paragraph, you obviously you've had to find the sense of empathy and embrace of otherness.” (Robbie) “ You know, in the middle of summer, there's not a lot of change going on. Things are sort of green, the weather sort of is what it is, and you're sort of waiting for something to happen in winter. Look, something new is going to come from this. The question is, do we see the opportunity to shape it or not? If we just let it happen, what will come may not be to our like, if we see it as an opportunity, we can shape it and turn it into something that is to our liking. That is wonderful. And that gives us the ability for that next generation that I was talking about to have a really fruitful and intentional adventure.” (Robbie) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv’s LinkedIn Aviv’s TwitterAviv’s WebsiteRobbie Bach