Peter McEwen is an ordained Nyingma yogi, meditation coach, and founder of an organization called The Field, where he teaches tantric methods to practitioners navigating contemporary life demands.

Since 1993, he's studied under Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Tulku Orgyen P'huntsok, Lama Pema Dorje Rinpoche, and Bruce Tift, and has completed the traditional Varjayana three-year retreat curriculum.

Peter writes The Current on Substack, sharing essays and tools from thirty years of integrating contemplative practice with daily life.

His work focuses on embodied presence and nervous system fluency, offering methods that survive the actual pressures of work, relationships, and daily complexity.

Grounded in three decades of traditional training, Peter brings Vajrayana into direct conversation with the realities of modern life.

In this episode, we discuss Peter’s initial experiences of awakening, balancing personal, interpersonal & spiritual work, Tantra, Tummo, Deity Yoga, and how to get the most out of practice as a householder.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Peter’s personal site
• The Field meditation training
• Upcoming Tummo course
• Subscribe to Peter’s Substack
• Bruce Tift on the Elevating Consciousness podcast
• Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
• Tulku Orgyen P'huntsok
• Lama Pema Dorje Rinpoche
• Johnny Miller
• Donald Hoffman

🕰️[Time stamps] 🕰️

0:00 - Introduction
2:38 - Initial experiences of awakening and getting into Buddhism
8:01 - Balancing personal, interpersonal & spiritual work
23:17 - The impact of working with Bruce Tift
27:15 - What is Tantra?
34:59 - Selecting the appropriate practice for your developmental stage
44:32 - What is Tummo and how does it work? (Inner fire practice)
54:45 - Peter guides a Tummo meditation
1:10:25 - How Tummo focuses the mind
1:12:28 - Visualization vs feeling in Tummo
1:16:00 - What is Deity yoga & how does it work?
1:22:22 - Do traditional Deity forms work for Western minds?
1:28:51 - How to get the most out of practice as a householder
1:41:49 - Peter’s upcoming Tummo course

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens

David Rug is a metaphysician, civilizational theorist, and visionary storyteller on a journey of transmuting childhood wounds of social fragmentation into memetic medicine for the human family.

Sensitized to the pains of social division and disconnect early in life through his parents' divorce and the increasingly political fracturing of his family field, he set out on a quest to understand the root causes of conflict and miscommunication. While completing his bachelor's degree in physics at Heidelberg University, he discovered GameB and adjacent movements. Through the extraordinarily clear thinking shared by thought leaders in that space, he realized there was, in effect, a "physics of communication"—principles that could be understood and applied to address the challenges he cared most about.

This insight led him to found Project Liminality—an open-source communication and co-creation layer designed to reshape how we share and organize around ideas. A central focus of this work is developing the InterBrain, a novel digital medium aimed at flipping the vector of conflict and fragmentation toward unity and wholeness.

His work combines systems thinking, visionary storytelling, and a deep exploration of the kinds of shared ideas and narratives that can inspire humanity to unite in addressing our greatest challenges and creating the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

In this episode, we speak about false progress, psychological warfare, developing a memetic immune system, returning to the spoken word, going from personal knowledge management to collective knowledge gardening, and David’s Interbrain project, which aims to bridge ancient wisdom with modern technology to end fragmentation.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Support Project Liminality and the Building of the Interbrain
• Project Liminality YouTube channel
• The Interbrain - How Collective DreamWeaving Can Heal the World
• Dialectical thinking
• Jordan Hall in conversation with David Rug

🕰️[Time stamps] 🕰️

0:00 - Introduction
3:15 - Early experiences of fragmentation and discovering the liminal web
13:47 - The polarities of fragmentation and finding the third attractor
21:10 - The solution has to come from a higher dimension of consciousness
25:22 - False progress, psychological warfare, and developing a memetic immune system
34:52 - A Course in Miracles, Fear vs Love, Specialness vs Uniqueness
41:54 - Building trust networks, returning to the spoken word, and problems of scale
51:21 - From personal knowledge management to collective knowledge gardening
1:08:35 - Reflecting on David’s big insights ( the primacy of symbols, written vs spoken word )
1:14:50 - The practicalities of the Interbrain (how it would work)
1:26:30 - Critiques and challenges of building the Interbrain
1:31:21 - Moving from independence to deep interdependence
1:36:42 - Revolutionizing journalism & politics
1:44:06 - The process of DreamWeaving
1:52:55 - Support David’s work

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens

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Dr. John Churchill is a psychologist, dharma teacher, and the founder of Planetary Dharma – an integrally informed community embracing the vows and path of the Bodhisattva, committed to elevating human consciousness and collective transformation.

John holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from William James College and is also a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. His journey into Buddhist psychology began as a monk at Samye (sam-yay) Ling Monastery in Scotland, where he undertook an in-depth study of Buddhist contemplative practice. He later spent 15 years training and teaching “Great Seal” (Mahamudra) meditation within an Indo-Tibetan Mahayana lineage under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel P. Brown.

John is a founding member of the Integral Institute, led by transpersonal philosopher Ken Wilber, and has received advanced training in attachment therapy, hypnosis, positive psychology for peak performance, and the “Pointing Out” style of Mahamudra meditation. He is also the author of Becoming Buddha: Buddhist Contemplative Psychology in a Western Context.

For the past 25 years, John has been developing what he calls the Fourth Turning Planetary Dharma—a full-spectrum psychospiritual approach that integrates the great Indo-Tibetan traditions with psychodynamic healing and adult development.

In this episode, we discuss the vision of a 4th turning dharma, John’s differences with his teacher Dan Brown, navigating the traditional vs progressive polarity in spirituality, connecting to sacred world, moving into the transrational, transitioning from Buddhism to Sacred Humanism, and so much more.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Learn more about Planetary Dharma
• Follow Planetary Dharma on Instagram
• Follow Planetary Dharma on Facebook
• Planetary Dharma’s Medicine Dharma Course
• Dan Brown
• Ken Wilber
• A.H. Almaas
• Hamilton Souther
• Lama Mike Crowley

🕰️[Time stamps] 🕰️

0:00 - Intro
3:29 - Unpacking the four turnings of Buddhism
9:58 - Further distinguishing the fourth turning
16:09 - Artem’s experience participating in the Planetary Dharma introductory retreat
17:27 - Planetary Dharma’s emphasis on the imaginal and self-image
25:25 - John’s differences with his mentor and teacher Dan Brown
37:56 - Navigating the traditional vs progressive polarities in spirituality
49:01 - Transitioning beyond Buddhism into Sacred Humanism
55:15 - Why modern minds are disconnected from Sacred World
1:02:46 - The pre-trans fallacy and navigating the trans-rational
1:16:17 - The role of psychedelics on the psychospiritual path
1:28:00 - What’s needed to build out a fourth turning academy
1:37:40 - The constraints of a householder and the future of Dharma
1:50:37 - Planetary Dharma offerings

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens

*Add me on Facebook