265. Bart Marshall

Award-winning translator, author, poet, teacher, and workshop leader, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is core faculty and Dean at the Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Father Richard Rohr. Her translation for Shambhala Publications of the fourteenth-century contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing received a 46th Georgia Author of the Year Award. Martin Laird calls her translation of Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence “the new standard,” and it was named by Spirituality & Practice to its Best Books List. At the University of Georgia Carmen earned an MA and a PhD in Medieval Studies, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London, she worked with monastic manuscripts in London and Oxbridge libraries and translated homilies by the tenth-century Benedictine abbot, Ælfric of Eynsham, published as God of Mercy: Ælfric’s Sermons and Theology (Mercer University Press). Carmen has been interviewed on the BBC World Service The Compass, NPR Morning Edition, Center for Action and Contemplation’s Everything Belongs, Turning to the Mystics, and Learning How To See, and many other podcasts. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, in the College Writing Programs, and she is often found in the marsh chanting Psalm 46:10 in Old English.

Barbara Whitfield was a researcher at the University of Connecticut Medical School with psychiatry professor Bruce Greyson. Together they researched the after-effects of people who have had a Near-Death Experience. She taught at Rutger's University's Institute for Alcohol and Drug Studies School for 12 years, served on the board and executive board of The International Association for Near-Death Studies and was president of the Kundalini Research Network. She's been a guest expert on Larry King Live (twice), The Today Show, Man Alive, Donahue, Unsolved Mysteries, PM Magazine, Good Morning America, Oprah, Joan Rivers, Sonya Freeman, CNN Medical News, and Alabama Public Television, Imus, and All Things Considered. She also writes self-help books and provides workshops and speaking engagements on topics of recovery, near-death experiences and natural spirituality. Charles L Whitfield MD was a physician, psychotherapist, and internationally recognized expert on mental illness, behavioral problems, and recovery. He was an associate professor of medicine at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for 4 years and then taught medicine and addiction medicine as associate professor of medicine, psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine for eight years. He has been on the faculty of the Rutgers University Summer Institute of Alcohol and Drug Studies since 1978, and in the private practice of medicine and psychotherapy since 1976. He has been voted by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America every year since 1994. Barbara and Charles had a private practice in Atlanta, Georgia helping adults who have been repeatedly traumatized, who are having problems in living, who want to come off of psych drugs and/or opiates, and who may have had a spiritually transformative experience. Books: Dragon Energy: Myth and Reality (New) Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the Near-Death Experience and Other Doorways to Our Soul The Natural Soul: Unity with the Spiritual Energy that Connects Us: What it Looks like and how It Feels AFGEs: A Guide to Self-Awareness and Change The Power of Humility: Choosing Peace over Conflict in Relationships

Empaths, Empathic Overwhelm, Source Intuition, and the Sacred Work of Healing Dave Markowitz explores empaths, empathic overwhelm, and the sacred work of healing ourselves and our world. He shares how trauma, sensitivity, intuition, and our connection with Source can shape the way we experience ourselves and other people.

Spiritual Liberation, Memory Reconsolidation, and the End of the Separate Self Monica Khosla explores spiritual awakening, nonduality, and liberation through the surprising lens of neuroscience and memory reconsolidation. A somatic psychotherapist, she describes a sudden shift during a yoga class in 2009 in which the sense of being a separate self simply fell away. Monica is the author of The First and Last Belief: A Theory of Liberation in the Age of Neuroscience. In this conversation with Rick Archer, she considers whether the apparent end of separation may be understood as the release of a fundamental embodied assumption—an update in the brain’s model of reality rather than the attainment of a special spiritual status.

Andrew Cohen (1955–2025) was a spiritual teacher and the founder of EnlightenNext, an organization associated with his teaching of “Evolutionary Enlightenment.” He was a student of H. W. L. Poonja and wrote several books, including My Master Is My Self and Evolutionary Enlightenment. I interviewed Andrew in July 2012. Soon afterward, serious accounts emerged from former students describing a harmful and coercive culture within EnlightenNext. In light of those accounts, I removed this interview from the BatGap site. I have decided to restore it following Andrew’s death, not as an endorsement or a minimization of the harm experienced by former members, but because he appeared to make sincere efforts in later years to confront his behavior and change. These included therapy, ayahuasca work, a willingness to take ordinary jobs when necessary, and participation in the candid documentary How I Created a Cult, which includes difficult testimony from former members and is far from flattering to him. This interview is being made available as a historical record. As always, viewers are encouraged to exercise discernment and form their own conclusions. Books by Andrew Cohen: My Master Is My Self Enlightenment Is a Secret An Unconditional Relationship to Life Freedom Has No History Embracing Heaven & Earth Living Enlightenment Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path for Spiritual Awakening Interview conducted 7/14/2012