Chris Grosso The Indie Spiritualist

Betsy Chasse is an internationally known film Maker and author, most notable at the Co-Writer, Director and Producer of What The Bleep Do We Know?! In 2014, she produced the acclaimed Song of the New Earth, which premiered at The Seattle International Film Festival. She has authored 4 books including What The Bleep Do We Know: Discovering the Endless Possibilities to Altering Your Everyday Reality and in 2014 Tipping Sacred Cows. She recently released her latest book, It Came Out Of My Vagina, Now What?!, A hilarious book on parenting written with Co-Author Debbie Spector Weisman, and is in production on a new feature documentary, LEAP, which explores the world of Coaching (Life, Relationship, Business and Executive) to be released late 2016 / early 2017.

Mary O’Malley is an author, counselor and awakening mentor in Kirkland, Washington.  In the early 1970’s, a powerful awakening led Mary to begin changing her relationship with her challenges, freeing her from a lifelong struggle with darkness.  Mary’s latest book, What’s In the Way Is the Way, provides a revolutionary approach for healing your fears, anxieties, shame, and confusion, so you can live from a place of ease and well-being. Visit her at: www.maryomalley.com and www.whatsinthewayistheway.com 

Eben grew up in Ojai, California a mile from the home of rebel spiritualist Jiddu Krishnamurti. Eben great aunt was Paramahansa Yogananda's personal assistant and driver for a year at the Mount Washington Ashram in 1949. His father, when he was 6 years-old, also met Yogananda, so the thread of spirituality was woven into Eben’s life experience long before he became aware of its richness and beauty. During his teen years, in the 80's, Eben was a pioneer of the hardcore skateboarding and American hardcore punk rock scenes. He skated, played in bands, went to shows, and today acknowledges his place as a part of that greater movement. The same spirit guided him as he entered his life in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, and ultimately, into his life as a spiritualist.      

Mona Haydar is a poet, activist practitioner of Permaculture, meditator, composting devotee, mountain girl, solar power lover and a tireless God-enthusiast. She practices a life of sacred activism, poetry, contemplation and advocacy for living gently upon the Earth. She teaches classes and retreats on mindfulness and Islamic spirituality, leads workshops on creative writing and performs her poetry. Her words have found homes in the hearts of seekers, wanderers, poets, artists, lovers and stewards of the Earth. She grew up in Flint, Michigan, graduated from the University of Michigan and has since lived in Damascus where she studied Arabic and Islamic spirituality then went on to live in the mountains of Northern New Mexico at Lama Foundation and in the Redwood forest of Northern California with her husband and son. Mona and her husband, Sebastian set up a stand in Cambridge, Massachusetts with signs that read 'Talk to a Muslim' 'free coffee and donuts' 'free conversation' and 'Ask a Muslim' encouraging open a

A former criminal lawyer and psychotherapist, Jeff Brown is the author of Soulshaping: A Journey of Self-Creation, and Ascending with Both Feet on the Ground. Endorsed by authors Elizabeth Lesser, Oriah Mountain Dreamer and Katherine Woodward Thomas, “Ascending” is a collection of Jeff’s most popular spiritual graffiti — quotes, soul-bytes and aphorisms frequently shared in social media. He is also the author of the viral blog Apologies to the Divine Feminine (from a warrior in transition) and the producer and key journeyer in the award winning spiritual documentary, Karmageddon, which also stars Ram Dass, Seane Corn, David Life, Deva Premal and Miten. He has written a series of inspirations for ABC’s Good Morning America and appeared on over 200 radio shows. His third book, Love it Forward, was published on Valentine’s Day, 2014. He is also the owner of Enrealment Press (www.enrealment.com) and the creator of a new online school, Soulshaping Institute (www.soulshapinginstitute.com), which launched in Februar

Tara Brach is a leading western teacher of Buddhist meditation, emotional healing and spiritual awakening. She has practiced and taught meditation for over 35 years, with an emphasis on vipassana (mindfulness or insight) meditation. Tara is the senior teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. A clinical psychologist, Tara is the author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge.

Don Miguel Ruiz is a renowned spiritual teacher and internationally bestselling author. He has spent the past three decades guiding students to personal freedom through his profound insights regarding the nature of human reality. His landmark bestselling book, The Four Agreements, contains practical steps for long-term, personal transformation and has been read by millions around the world. Don Miguel is also the author of The Mastery of Love, The Voice of Knowledge, Prayers, and the New York Times bestseller, The Fifth Agreement, a collaboration with his son, don José Ruiz. Each of his books are international bestsellers. The wisdom don Miguel has brought to the world has earned him respect around the globe. He has dedicated his life to sharing his message through practical concepts in order to promote transformation and ultimately change lives for the better. More at www.miguelruiz.com.

Barbara Marx Hubbard is a prolific educator and author of seven books, including a revised and updated edition of her seminal work Conscious Evolution. She is an evolutionary thinker who believes that global change happens when we work collectively and selflessly for the greater good. Visit her online at barbaramarxhubbard.com. Episode Outline: • Vocation of Destiny – Barbara discusses what initially led her life’s path of exploring conscious evolution, including the atomic bomb, church, college, meeting President Eisenhower and more. • Conscious Evolution – Barbara discusses evolution becoming conscious in humans and how turning into evolution by choice, not chance can help expedite the process. • Evolution or De-volution – Barbara discusses Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s statement that there are two different kinds of people on earth—homo-progressive and bourgeoisie—and the impact on evolution by each. • The New Story of Evolution – Barbara discusses the evolving nature of humans and the universe as part of c

Adam Bucko is an activist, spiritual director to many of New York City’s homeless youth, and co-author of a the award-winning book called "Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation". He grew up in Poland during the totalitarian regime and spent his early years exploring the anarchist youth movement as a force for social and political change. At the age of 17, Adam immigrated to America where his desire to find his path towards a meaningful life led him to monasteries in the US and India. His life-defining experience took place in India, where on his way to a Himalayan hermitage, he met a homeless child who lived on the streets of Delhi. This brief encounter led him to the “Ashram of the Poor” where he began his work with homeless youth. After returning to the US, he worked on the streets of various American cities with young people struggling against homelessness and prostitution. He eventually co-founded The Reciprocity Foundation, an award winning nonprofit dedicated to transforming the liv

Guy Newland holds a Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Virginia. He has worked with a great many Tibetan scholars and taught at five Dharma centers--all within the Dalai Lama’s school of Tibetan Buddhism. Since 1988 he has been a professor at Central Michigan University. His publications include The Two Truths (Snow Lion), Appearance and Reality (Snow Lion), Introduction to Emptiness (Snow Lion) and, in collaboration with others, Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy (Oxford).   Episode Outline: • Early Years – Guy briefly discusses his early years on the spiritual path, studying mystic Christianity, Hinduism, Sufism, his interest in experience rather than doctrine, cultivating compassion within ourselves and finding his home in the Buddhist lineage. • Traditions – Guy discusses some of the similarities and differences between Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. • Perception – Guy breaks down the teaching of the two truths—conventional truth and ultimate truth—using various e

Bio Diane Hamilton has been a practitioner of meditation for almost 30 years. She began her studies at Naropa University in 1983 with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and became a Zen student of Genpo Roshi’s in 1997. In 2003, she received ordination as a Zen monk with her husband Michael Zimmerman, and received dharma transmission from Roshi in 2006. Diane facilitates Big Mind Big Heart, a process developed by Genpo Roshi to help elicit the insights of Zen in Western audiences. She has worked with Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute since 2004.   Episode Outline: Tragedy/Spirituality – Diane discusses her early years on the spiritual path, losing seven of her friends to a series of accidents at the age of seventeen, which became a very significant catalyst in her spiritual life, studying with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and more.   Conflict Is Good News – In her book, Everything Is Workable, Diane writes, “To learn to transform conflict, we must let go of the notion that something or someone is wrong or bad,” wh

Matthew Fox is the author of over 30 books including The Hidden Spirituality of Men, Christian Mystics, and most recently Meister Eckhart. A preeminent scholar and popularizer of Western mysticism, he became an Episcopal priest after being expelled from the Catholic Church by Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

Sera Beak is a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions. She spent years traveling the world studying spirituality – from whirling with Sufi dervishes to meeting the Dalai Lama on her 21st birthday. The New York Times has called Sera one of the new “role models” of our generation. Sera is the author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark and Red Hot & Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story.

Mirabai Starr is author of CARAVAN OF NO DESPAIR: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation, new translations of the Spanish mystics, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, and the award-winning book, GOD OF LOVE: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity & Islam. She leads contemplative inter-spiritual retreats worldwide. Episode Outline: The Transformational Power of Loss – Mirabai and I discuss her new book, Caravan of No Despair and how she lays her entire heart and guts out in a raw and unabashed way for readers to see. We also discuss the transformational power of loss and how that can be a great catalyst for change and growth in our life. On Suffering – Mirabai and I discuss Ram Dass’s quotes, “Suffering is the sandpaper of our incarnation. It does its job of shaping us” and how we can grow through our suffering. Mirabai also discusses the role the great mystic teachers can play in helping us to make sense of pain, loss and suffering. On Healing – We’re all human and we’re all recovering from so

Don Miguel Ruiz Jr. is a Nagual, a Toltec Master of Transformation. He is a direct descendant of the Toltecs of the Eagle Knight lineage and is the son of don Miguel Ruiz. By combining the wisdom of his family’s traditions with the knowledge gained from his own personal journey, he now helps others realize their own path to personal freedom. Episode Outline: • The Rebellious Heart – Miguel discusses his teenage years growing up with brother don Jose Ruiz and their eclectic love of the arts, including the music of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and The Cure, films such as the Lost Boys and Dead Poets Society (and more) and how they were often judged as not being “spiritual” as a result. • Spirituality, Don’t Pigeonhole It – Miguel discusses the importance of honoring our truths on the spiritual path and to see the spirituality in all of life rather than trying to pigeonhole it. He also talks about how honoring his truth led him to working in filmography earlier in his with such people as Missy Elliott, Michael Sti

Bio   Jessica Pimentel may be most well known for her role as Maria Ruiz on the Netflix hit series, Orange Is The New Black, but she’s also an amazing musician who sings for Alekhine’s Gun (amongst other musical projects) and a longtime practitioner in the Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist lineage.   Episode Outline:   Finding Your Way – Jessica outlines her early spiritual journey, which consisted of Christianity and bible study, Native American culture, Jainism, Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism and ultimately, Tibetan Buddhism.   Hardcore Music – There’s an ever growing number of old school punk/hardcore “kids” that are finding their way into spirituality these days. Books such as Noah Levine’s Dharma Punx, Brad Warner’s Hardcore Zen and my own Indie Spiritualist speak to this. Jessica talks about what first attracted her to this music and going to the bands shows, as well as what’s kept her there since.   Hardcore Spirituality – Jessica and I discuss the correlation between the punk/hardcore movement that has led so

Loch Kelly, M.Div., LCSW is the author of, Shift into Freedom: The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness. He is an educator, licensed psychotherapist and recognized leader in the field of nondual meditation who was asked to teach Sutra Mahamudra by Mingyur Rinpoche and nondual meditation by Adyashanti. Loch has worked in community mental health, established homeless shelters and counseled family members of 9/11. He is the founder of the non-profit Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. Loch collaborates with neuroscientists at Yale, UPenn and NYU to study how awareness training can enhance compassion and wellbeing. Visit lochkelly.org.

As a person in long term recovery from depression, trauma, self harm and substance abuse, compassionate and effective treatment of adolescent health is mission critical to Jamison Monroe. He is the Founder and CEO of Newport Academy, a series of healing centers for teens and families struggling with mental and behavioral health issues. With locations in California, Connecticut and New York City, Newport Academy encompasses four state of the art residential treatment programs, two comprehensive outpatient programs, and three nationally recognized therapeutic high schools designed specifically for teens in recovery. 
An Executive Producer of a truly game changing documentary about the prescription drug abuse epidemic among our nation's youth called Behind The Orange Curtain, Monroe, is a regular national news contributor on the topic of adolescent mental health to CNN, HLN, CBS and other major news outlets. Monroe has testified in front of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the subject of teen prescription

Dana Sawyer is a full-time Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the Maine College of Art, and an adjunct professor of Asian Religions at the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. He is the author of two critically acclaimed spiritual biographies, of Aldous Huxley (2002) and Huston Smith (2014), and has written on a wide range of topics related to consciousness expansion, Tibetan Buddhism, Hindu mysticism, psychedelic experience, and alternative philosophies. Besides teaching at the academic level, Prof. Sawyer is a popular speaker on the lecture circuit, having taught workshops at the Esalen Institute, the Kripalu Institute, and other such centers of psychological, spiritual and philosophical inquiry. His work has appeared in Tricycle, the Buddhist Review, Parabola magazine, Yoga Journal and other such publications.