Arash's World Podcast

People Making History: Lord Conrad Black on Leaders and Political and Strategic World History

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with biographer and historian Lord Conrad Black and author of “The Political and Strategic History of the World, Vol. I”, an ambitious and comprehensive project that will encompass a trilogy of books starting from the Old Testament and focusing on various influential people and leaders that have made history.

In the first volume, Conrad looks at how clans and tribes organized themselves in Mesopotamia, India, and China, and it ends with the death of the first Roman Emperor Augustus. He also looks at other notable and noteworthy historical figures that have left indelible marks in the annals of history, including Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.

We also touch upon the founding fathers and the American Experiment and the strategic contributions of Benjamin Franklin as well as later important influences by Franklin Roosevelt, who is generally considered to be a polarized figure ranging from being a socialist to the “greatest friend capitalism ever had.”

Moreover, we agree that history is a fascinating subject and that it is not merely a repetitive cycle but that it in fact represents a line of progress, which is not straight but rather jagged in its shape and nature. Conrad also gives two "what-if" examples and scenarios of speculative history, the nightmare and the best outcome, in his view.

Finally, we talk about how the Americans faced the Communist threat during the Cold War period and how despite occasional overreactions, it was a bold and successful strategy to keep the Soviet Union at bay. At the same time, Nazis were not as unified as is often thought and believed but that they faced internal strife and opposition including the assassination attempt on their leader.

Finding Healing and Alignment across Mind, Heart and Spirit with Spiritual Healing Coach Alison Davies

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Spiritual Healing Coach Alison Davies about the process and different states and stages of healing. First off, a wide holistic outlook on wellness and wellbeing is crucial while at the same time, one must go within and acknowledge and embrace ownership and accountability.

Moreover, to be able to reach healing and live blissfully and joyfully, we must pause, be curious about life, and listen to the voice of our soul. Then, it is necessary to be courageous and act and engage consistently to solidify these experiences so that we can achieve alignment across all four bodies in healing: the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual body.

Different analogies are given to illustrate this, including how it is often not a matter of right or wrong, how we can welcome doubt without being dissuaded from acting and moving forward, and finally, how it is everyone’s own personal choice and responsibility to take up the path of self-discovery, growth, and spiritual harmony. Each of us must journey toward our very own awesome and life-transforming spiritual awakening since life is so much more fun, enjoyable, and fulfilling with authentic love, compassion, and empathy.

 

The Instant Anxiety Solution: Simple and Practical Tips and Strategies to Deal with Anxiety with Michelle Biton

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Health & Wellness Coach and Educator Michelle Biton about her book “The Instant Anxiety Solution: 5 Simple Steps to Quiet your Mind and Achieve Calm” and how her Five Step Alarm Program can help dealing with anxiety.

Michelle explains how she has used it, applied everything she talks about here, and that it works. This holistic approach starts with the first step, which involves tools and strategies to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Thereafter, it is important to identify and label one’s emotions. We discuss how anxiety is on a spectrum and in lower doses and levels, it can be necessary and even beneficial to function in daily life.

The next step involves acknowledging one’s feelings and not suppressing, numbing, or avoiding them because if you can’t go through the emotion, you can’t get to the other side. Moreover, we must remember to avoid layering our thoughts and emotions because this would be feeding them, and it could snowball into catastrophic thinking and negativity.

The final step is about taking charge and moving forward with the art of mindfulness.  That would help us combine all the different steps and by being centered in the present moment, we can figure out what it is we want to pursue for the future. In many ways, our anxiety stems from a fear of the future, which is something that we can manage and control, especially since emotions are transitory and not permanent.

Happy Children Don’t Make Wars: Dreamlike Consciousness of Birth Trauma, the Prenatal Experience, Psychoanalysis and Lived Life with Dr. Ludwig Janus

In this podcast, you will find prominent voices, psychoanalysts, psychologists, therapists, philosophers, and thought leaders talking about a variety of mental health concerns and problems including how to not only deal with anxiety, depression, and chronic conditions but also how to thrive by becoming more resilient and more emotionally engaged and invested in life.

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Ludwig Janus, psychoanalytic and prenatal-oriented psychotherapist, author of the book “The Enduring Effects of Prenatal Experiences: Echoes from the Womb” on how prenatal and perinatal experiences shape and influence human psychology.

Our birth is a real experience that not only occurs on an individual level but also forms a collective part of psychohistory, which includes a rich and whole range of experiences that are preverbal and become part of our implicit memory.

In traditional psychoanalysis, Freud’s unconscious included the “inner child” whereas Adler posited the minority complex and the drive to power, it was Rank who put birth trauma on the map and into our conscious field stating that it is possible to go through the birth process without losing oneself.

Yet, there are different types of therapy to address birth trauma, such as regression therapy, primal therapy, and others, to effectively get to the root of the issues, which can stem from various factors and conditions like medical interventions, feelings of stress and anxiety during pregnancy, socioeconomic conditions, or due to feeling unwanted or unwelcome in the family.

These negative prenatal and perinatal experiences remain in our unconscious and can lead to neuroticism, and anxiety, and even be the cause of violence and cruelty as demonstrated by murderers and notorious political leaders around the world. The antidote is to create loving and peaceful conditions during pregnancies as well as a supportive environment in the outer world via caring and accepting parents.

That can be achieved through bonding analysis and the prenatal relations of mother and child. If there is bonding, connection, and empathy before birth, the child has a feeling of and right to existence with a basic autonomy which would essentially increase self-confidence and self-esteem by turning the trauma of birth into a call for adventure.

 

Circles of Healing and Hope for Peace in the Middle East with Therapist and Author Nitsan Joy Gordon

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking (once again!) with peace activist, therapist, and author Nitsan Joy Gordon but this time around sadly under the heavy cloak of violence, war, and suffering. Situated in the Galilee at the border with Lebanon, her community, which includes Muslims, Christians, and Jews live in constant fear and tremendous uncertainty.

More than ever, Nitsan is following her calling to establish an army of healers that will be involved in bringing peace and healing to a war-torn region. To be able to do so, it is important to feel and share one’s pain and to engage in open dialogue with respect and empathy toward the other because if we don’t transform our pain, we transmit it and act it out thus creating more divide and mistrust.

And yet, here is the perfect opportunity for healing from trauma in a window of opportunity that comes once in a century, but we all need the willingness to change for the better. This means coming together and to start rebuilding trust and connection despite different belief systems, fears, and doubts.

We also need to change our paradigms and mindsets about the state of the world and follow Marianne Williamson’s suggestions and initiative of a Department of Peace that spends money not on weapons, bombs, and defense systems but on building peace and on teaching people how to connect, on working through conflicts and doing something for the highest good of the world.

Lift Yourself Up to Draw All Things Toward You: Reverend James Parker on Visualizing and Igniting the Wealth Spark for Personal and Professional Abundance and Success

In this episode (and the first one to (b)ring in this New Year), I have the great pleasure of talking with Reverend James Parker, Ordained Unity Minister, Life Coach, and Author of “The Wealth Spark: Igniting Your Path to Abundance and Success”.

James explains the difference between a wealth mindset and a scarcity mindset and how many people get stuck in or settle for the latter, which ends up feeding negativity across the board. However, there is the opportunity to shift from negative self-talk, which brings in and attracts negative energy, to positive views and beliefs that foster and promote wealth, abundance, and overall success.

It is important to keep in mind that prosperity alone does not bring about nor ensure lasting well-being and happiness and that a holistic approach to wealth not only includes financial gain but also rich and fulfilling connections and relationships in our life as well as peacefulness and wholeness within ourselves.

Self-care, mindfulness, and intuition all play an important role in this holistic outlook. At the same time, faith and spiritual development would open doors not only within but also outside of ourselves. By going within and lifting ourselves up, we would attract and welcome good things into our lives and as such ignite the wealth spark toward personal and professional fulfillment while extending and expanding this for the common and the highest good.

Mental Immunity with Dr. Andy Norman: Keeping it Real, the Information Environment Healthy and Our Critical and Rational Thinking Intact

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Andy Norman, researcher, public philosopher, and author of “Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think” and one of the founders of the Mental Immunity Project on how to boost your mental immunity by protecting yourself and guarding against infectious ideas and mind parasites.

Dr. Norman explains how the mind like the body has an immune system and how we can immunize ourselves against flawed thinking, biases, and conspiracy theories. Through mind inoculation, we can also prepare for upcoming or anticipated false narratives and prebunk them (i.e. debunk them in advance) so we have better protection and guardrails against disinformation and misinformation as demonstrated in the case of the Biden administration and the invasion of Ukraine.

Since the advent of the European enlightenment, we have become somewhat more rational in our outlook and have been less prone to fall for dangerous superstitions like witchcraft, while also being a bit more able to modify and regulate emotions via our reflective and thoughtful selves. In addition, we need to have intellectual humility, open-mindedness, and curiosity and not be overconfident as this could comprise our ability to separate fact from fiction. In such cases, doubts are our mind’s antibodies, but if they are prevalent, they can derail us by making us too rigid and biased in our thinking.

Finally, we also discuss the inherent dangers of generative AI with deep fakes that could mislead many users and viewers and also how technology with its algorithm of increased engagement and profiteering may contribute to more extreme and radical thinking. Yet, if we immerse ourselves in healthy practices, infuse our thinking with reasonable doubt, and take advantage of projects like mental immunity, we can come out stronger and more resilient.

You Just Had To Be There: Radhia Gleis on Cults and Cult Leaders, the ”Holy Hell” Documentary and the Netflix Series

In this episode, I have (once again and again) the great pleasure of speaking to Radhia Gleis who has previously appeared on two different occasions on this podcast to talk about her experiences as a former cult member of the Buddhafield and who was also interviewed for the documentary “Holy Hell” as well as the informative and insightful book “The Followers: “Holy Hell” and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders” now in its 2nd edition.

Recently, she appeared in the Netflix series “How to Become a Cult Leader” and we talk about her experience and the depiction and portrayal of the Buddhafield cult. She explains how documentaries and shows of that ilk often distort facts and events. In reality, things were often different than on those programs, and in many ways, you had to be there to understand the range and scope and the complex issues and situations to fully understand what was going on.

That said, she demonstrates various key points that cult leaders, tyrants, dictators, and narcissistic sociopaths have in common, which they borrow from similar playbooks. Narcissistic leaders often try to pinpoint weaknesses, give answers to what people want to hear, and provide them with what they want or need, while also distorting facts, manipulating the psyche, and playing with the emotions and vulnerabilities of the members and followers.

Moreover, members of such groups, sects, and communities tend to build connections amongst each other as they strive to build their unique community, and which they tend to hold onto despite experiencing malaise, discomfort, and various amounts of cognitive dissonance. All this involves and underscores complex psychological processes and cannot be simplified or reduced to simple matters of education or intelligence.

Come Forth like Lazarus and Embrace the Miracle of Life with Reverend James Martin

In this podcast, I have the honor and great pleasure of speaking with Reverend James Martin, Jesuit Catholic Priest, and Author of the magnificent, colorful, and insightful book “Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle”.

We talk about why the Reverend chose “The Raising of Lazarus” as the subject of his book. Its theme of coming forth and stepping forward can have various meanings and signify many different things for each individual ranging from an invitation for change and leaving our “metaphorical tombs” behind to starting and stepping into a richer, fuller, and authentic new life.

Moreover, the book also has elements of a travelogue, memoir, motivational, inspirational, and spiritual self-help book alongside philosophical and religious thoughts and reflections about life, death, the afterlife, and what is considered the greatest miracle performed by Jesus.

In the Scriptures, the raising of Lazarus demonstrates the immense power that the messiah has over life and death by bringing a person back to life, but it can also be interpreted as a call for change and finding your true voice and vocation in life. Deep down in our inner life, our intuition may be giving us signs from the divine telling and propelling us to come forth and embrace and lead a more healthy, holy, grounded, and centered life.

 

Psychoanalysis as a Playground for Healing: Working with Children, Adolescents, and Technology with Sigourney Award Recipient Virginia Ungar

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Sigourney Award Recipient Virginia Ungar, psychoanalyst and ex-president of the International Psychoanalytical Association. She shares with us her own encounter with psychoanalysis and the general and ubiquitous presence and prevalence of this fascinating field in her home country Argentina.

Dr. Ungar works mainly with children and adolescents and shares the many joys of working with this age group as they have not only different insights and worldviews but also a lot to teach and to give to everyone around them.

Yet, they also have their unique difficulties and challenges, especially having to deal with some of the drawbacks of technology and the current state of the world, which includes violence as well as the experience and suffering and after-effects of a pandemic.

Moreover, Virginia explains her own approach to psychoanalysis and that includes building new relationships and creating novelties. It goes beyond the interaction of two individuals, but it is a mutual and wonderful experience that touches both and creates something new, beautiful, and lasting out of this transformative interaction and encounter.