Today on MindMatters, Dr. Karen Mitchell, founder and CEO of the Kalmor Institute, shares insights from her pioneering PhD research on the "persistent predatory personality." Unlike previous studies that relied primarily on incarcerated populations or graduate students, Dr. Mitchell's work draws from the extensive experiences of practitioners who have dedicated their careers to working with individuals exhibiting dark triad traits and psychopathic tendencies.

Her research includes data from professionals with an average of 22 years' experience in fields such as child sex abuse, domestic violence, cults, terrorism, toxic leadership, including an FBI agent with the highest number of serial killer cases. By canvassing these unique perspectives, her work offers a fresh approach to understanding and identifying the persistent predatory personality, highlighting the limitations of existing models like the Psychopathy Checklist developed by Robert Hare.

Inner speaking, inner seeing, feelings, sensory awareness, unsymbolized thinking. Do we all have the same inner experiences? And how aware are we of what we actually experience from moment to moment?

In this episode of Mind Matters, we interview Dr. Russell T. Hurlburt, a pioneering psychologist from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Hurlburt discusses his groundbreaking work investigating "pristine inner experience" - the unfiltered, moment-to-moment contents of our consciousness. He introduces his innovative method, Descriptive Experience Sampling, which aims to capture and analyze inner experiences with the aid of specialized beeper and an in-depth interview process.

This episode provides a unique perspective on the study of human consciousness and the complexities of inner experience. Dr. Hurlburt's insights shed light on the importance of understanding our internal mental processes and how they relate to our self-representations. Whether you're a psychology enthusiast, a student of cognitive science, or simply curious about the workings of the human mind, this interview provides valuable insights into cutting-edge research on consciousness and experience.

• Russ's DES interview videos and transcripts: https://hurlburt.faculty.unlv.edu/lena/do_I_have_internal_monologue_sampling.html
• Russ's book: https://www.amazon.com/Investigating-Pristine-Inner-Experience-Moments/dp/1107009944
• Our previous discussion on Russ's work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP4XFq2fPM8

Self-talk. Visualizations. Bodily awareness. Unconscious thought processes. In our day-to-day course of existence our minds assimilate, respond and react to any number of stimuli from within – and without. But how often do we stop to consider just how we do this and what faculties of apprehension are actually put to use? And do we even have a framework, vocabulary and level of awareness from which to do it?

Inner speech (inner monologue), inner vision, sensory awareness, emotions and unsymbolized thinking are all categories that, according to psychologist and researcher Russell T. Hurlburt, can help one come to know what one’s "pristine inner experience" is. Along with such a framework and the research inspired by it come many questions. What does it mean to be “in the moment”? Do all people use all categories of inner experience with the same frequency? How are we used to describing our inner experiences to ourselves and to others? Were personages like Gurdjieff on to something when he encouraged people to observe themselves?

Join us this week on MindMatters as we question the many assumptions, presuppositions, and mediations that come between cognizance of individual inner experience, and a relative state of unawareness regarding just what makes us tick.

So you’ve been ‘red pilled’. You're well versed in false flags, deep states, secret governments, and state-sponsored assassinations. You’ve watched documentaries about stolen elections, the New World Order, child trafficking, and mind control. And then when you were through with those, you read extensively on the criminal acts of intelligence agencies, psychopathy among the elite, exotic weapons, and more.

And now you simply know, in your bones, that the reality presented to you on CNN (and most other places) is total B.S. - and have the hours and days of sleepless nights, shocked reactions and chills running down your spine to prove it. But, perhaps, no one ever told you how to assimilate such life-changing information. And, perhaps, no one ever guided your expanded insight of how the world really works - with an equally expanded insight into how you really work. (Or, if you have experienced it, you can stand to have a few reminders!)

This week on MindMatters we are joined by writer and researcher Colin E. Davis whose new book, Transforming Darkness: A Shadow Work Toolkit for the Red Pilled Initiate addresses just such issues. Using Jung’s idea of the Shadow, or the dark side that exists in all of us, Davis not only provides a survey of works describing how this darkness comes to be and is manifested in the world, but also provides references to some of the best modalities that aid in addressing them. Understanding the world we truly live in is a most worthy pursuit, but the balance required to see ourselves as we truly are, and as we live a 'Red Pilled’ life, is no less crucial.

Neo-gnosticism without gnosis. Gnosis without neo-gnosticism. These are just a couple of the frameworks, dichotomies, and strains of gnosticism making their way into the religious, social, and political consciousness and conversation of today’s world through literature, film, and other media. In this follow-up discussion with author and scholar Arthur Versluis, we continue our discussion on his Oxford University Press-published book 'American Gnosis: Political Religion And Transcendence.' We further delve into the profound influence and divergences of an ancient set of spiritual beliefs - made all the more relevant for their lasting power and pervasiveness in so much of what we’re observing on the world stage. (Part I of this discussion is here.)

This week on MindMatters we further examine the spectrum of gnosis, contemporary misconceptions about its tenets, as well as how the political dissidents of today could become the inquisitional forces of tomorrow. If pathocracy, extreme materialism, radical leftism and communism are the ‘enemies’ of gnosticism, then what, if anything, can gnosticism tell us about a way forward in an increasingly complicated world?

Astrophilosophy. Exotheology. Whitehead.

Andrew Davis is the program director for the Center for Process Studies. A philosopher and theologian, his latest work is on the metaphysics of exo-life. Today on MindMatters we discuss his work on science, religion, and what the impact of the discovery of ET life would mean for philosophy, and a general philosophical framework that would make sense of it.

We also discuss the opening up of public and academic interest in the topic of UFOs and non-human intelligences, David Ray Griffin's work and parapsychology, humans as an exemplification of what the universe does, the morphological and ontological templates that life may take elsewhere, the ontology of possibilities, shared commonalities that might allow for communication with ET forms of life, the mind of God, and more.

David Abramowitz joins us once again, this time to discuss Michael Shellenberger and Peter Boghossian's Taxonomy of Woke Psychopathology. With Andrew Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology as inspiration, the taxonomy summarizes how certain Woke topics and causes express Cluster B personality disorder dynamics. While the topics themselves may not be pathological, the manner in which they're presented is, expressing such features as attention-seeking, grandiosity, emotional dysregulation, excess and lack of empathy, victimhood ideology, impaired reality testing, and splitting.

Join us as we take a broader look at political causes, the pathocratic function of ideology, and its role in creating a worldview that makes sense to the Cluster B personality. Pathocratic personalities then attempt to force everyone else to conform to the world they have created.

Let's face it. Bigfoot is real. The only question is, what is it? With now thousands of credible encounters that would be difficult to ignore or dismiss, we know many individuals have also observed a host of seemingly paranormal phenomena that quite often accompany these large strange creatures. Orbs, ball lightening, strange smells, space-time anomalies, electromagnetic fluctuations; not to mention witnessing these cryptids moving at super-fast speeds, and morphing into different forms; making our conceptions of what Bigfoot are very likely obsolete.

But what if some of the experiences of these beings, and others like them, has something to do with our tentative understanding of cutting edge science? What if what many have seen has much in common with the way that "coherent matter" works? Are there correlations between cold fusion, or low-energy nuclear reaction, technology and access to other realms of reality? And what have a number of leading scientists in physics been known to say about the fluid nature of reality?

This week on MindMatters we are pleased to speak with Dr. Simeon Hein whose recent book, Dark Matter Monsters: Cryptids, Ball Lightning, and the Science of Secret Lifeforms, is a serious exploration of just such questions.