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Deep Transformation

Deep Transformation

By: Roger Walsh and John Dupuy
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Deep Transformation offers dialogues with cutting-edge thinkers, artists, contemplatives, and activists who combine big-picture, integrative perspectives with profound, contemplative depths. With these remarkable people, we explore the great questions of our time, such as how best to live, and how best to heal, learn, create, and contribute in our era of unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Visit our website at https://deeptransformation.io/ to learn more.Copyright 2026 Roger Walsh and John Dupuy Personal Development Personal Success Philosophy Social Sciences Spirituality
Episodes
  • From Civilizational Breakdown to Breakthrough: How We Can Shape the Future

    From Civilizational Breakdown to Breakthrough: How We Can Shape the Future
    Oct 29 2026
    Ep. 245 | Robb Smith, social innovator, integral philosopher, and founder of the Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM), is incredibly illuminating as to the forces and flux at work in the world now and how big picture thinking can help us through this time of transition. Rob’s passion, and the focus of IAM, is working on long-arc, socially impactful ecosystem configurations. “I like the thorny stuff,” he says, “the stuff that hasn’t been figured out yet.” Big-picture perspectives keep getting better, Robb tells us. They have become tractable tools for helping social impact entrepreneurs create systems that benefit society as a whole. Robb calls out to the innovators of the world, those with the “4 C’s” (conscious, complex, curious, compassionate), to use IAM’s sensemaking tools, which he says can help them both look at reality in a more realistic way and better envision new possibilities for what they do in their sphere. Robb well understands what is currently breaking down, what is potentially being formed, and the interim zone of opportunity. In fact, there is evidence of a whole new worldview emerging—what Robb calls an integrative worldview—a “New Story of Wholeness.” Eros is building in the system, he continues: an explosion of spiritual energy and capital currently blocked that needs to be tapped into and liberated. Robb moves fast, and what he shares is extraordinarily stimulating. As co-host Roger Walsh described it, this conversation is “impassioned, informative, information dense, intellectually sophisticated, inspiring, and probably a few other things as well.” “Everyone should feel hope,” Robb concludes. “We have the power to make the transformation functional and improve the world in a powerful way.” Recorded April 30, 2026.“The system is going to go into release, because you can only avoid reality for so long. Ultimately, the real always ends up winning.”Topics & Time StampsIntroducing social innovator & integral philosopher Robb Smith, founder of the Institute of Applied Metatheory & CEO of Integral Life (00:49)What animates Robb: setting up societal systems to help people have fuller, better lives (01:54)How do we concretely bring a new worldview into being? (05:31)How to leverage opportunities arising in this breakdown phrase & generate new structures that take us into the reorganization phase (09:00)Modernity’s scarce resource problems are ending; now scarce resources are resilience & right relations with our planet & each other (13:02)What is driving the metacrisis? The system has stopped listening; it can no longer learn or integrate (14:42)We need to release a lot of innovation into the system so institutional restructuring can occur (19:19)The people who show up: conscious, complex, curious, compassionate (24:01)We need the masculine samurai energy more than ever but men are afraid (29:24)Let’s revindicate the notion of worldviews & recognize the integrative worldview now coming online (31:32)Things are shifting under our feet: Who are we? What should we value? (35:58)The progression of worldviews from fundamentally relational to postmodern (37:08)How do we organize for higher level cooperative action? (42:41)We have to put out the notion of a new worldview as a candidate in a healthy competition of ideas (46:18)Moral rot & how ruthless power consolidation is providing rocket fuel for change (49:03)What are the projects the Institute of Applied Metatheory is working on? (55:23)Welcome to the integrative worldview, and the inverse complexity gap (1:01:21)The innovators’ spiritual orientation; honoring love, Vedantic inquiry & raves (1:03:54)How important is relationality in IAM’s work? (1:09:26)How can people contribute to the work at IAM? (1:12:41)Everyone should feel hope (1:15:01)Resources & ReferencesRobb Smith, founder of the Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM) and founder & CEO of Integral LifeThe Transformational Life: Robb Smith at TEDxUniversity of Nevada (2013)Margaret Archer developed the morphogenetic approach to analyze how social structures and human agency interact Robb Smith, The Great Release: The Rise of Trump and the End of U.S. Hegemony (Integral Life website)Gerhard Lenski, sociologist who introduced the ecological-evolutionary theoryJasmine Sun, Silicon Valley Is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass (New York Times Opinion)Brendan Graham Dempsey, IAM Spotlight: The Cultural Complexity IndexRandall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies : A Global Theory of Intellectual ChangeMilton Friedman, Capitalism and FreedomThe Integrative Values Charter (IntegrativeValues.Org)The New Story of Wholeness, a welcome mat to the integrative worldview (IAM website)Robert Kegan, In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern LifeJames Fowler, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for MeaningRoy Bhaskar, The Philosophy of Metareality: Creativity, Love and Freedom---Robb Smith is founder and CEO of...
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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • Loving the Truth, Exploring the Now: The Heart-Call of the Diamond Approach

    Loving the Truth, Exploring the Now: The Heart-Call of the Diamond Approach
    Oct 15 2026
    Ep. 244 | In the second dialogue of The Jeweled Path Series, Karen Johnson and Hameed Ali continue to animate the Diamond Approach teaching with their remarkable stories and insights, loosely following the structure of Karen’s biography of the Diamond Approach, The Jeweled Path. Karen and Hameed delve into the subject of inquiry: the unique way it is practiced on the Diamond Path, it being a rare marriage of mind and heart, and the compelling way it opens the door for presence to make itself known. As Hameed puts it, “This type of inquiry pierces the veils of all the ways consciousness comes forward—in body, mind, and heart.” “The most necessary question is, ‘What’s happening NOW?’” Karen continues, vividly bringing forth what it feels like to be on the brink of Now, the departure point for experiencing further dimensions of consciousness.It is a marvel how these two spiritual teachers are so much in sync discussing deeply profound subjects like the relationship of the human soul, ego, and consciousness, what it means to become a “pearl beyond price,” and how the soul is what gives true nature life. They are joined in their deep love and appreciation for consciousness itself—its beauty, multidimensionality, and the force of its teaching—and express how touched they are by its desire to break through to us and communicate. Karen and Hameed say our souls are a substance of consciousness, and the way this conversation stirs and moves our heart, it would seem that the luminous beingness deep in our soul is listening in. Recorded September 10, 2026.“If you are interested in what is happening right NOW, that now is the point of departure that enables another dimension to come into play.”Topics & Time StampsIntroducing the 2nd episode of The Jeweled Path Series with Karen Johnson & Hameed Ali, co-creators of the Diamond Approach (00:46)How did Karen & Hameed come upon the practice of inquiry, the central process of the Diamond Approach? (02:00)Inquiry, initially called “investigation,” was impacted by Socratic inquiry, psychoanalysis, group work, Gestalt, plus the scientific method (04:45)An often-read Sufi story underscored the importance of loving truth for its own sake (07:03)Hameed’s stalwartness with journaling provided the canon for the teaching (10:04)The marriage of mind and heart brought out a new, felt language of being (11:09)Inquiry allows us to explore ever deeper strata of consciousness (13:19)Practicing presence: opening to the subtle sensations of consciousness itself (15:25)What inspired Karen to delve below the horizontal surface of the experience? (16:56)This type of inquiry pierces the veils of all the ways consciousness comes forward: body, mind & heart (19:19)Interest in the “now” is what enables another dimension to come into play (20:28)Our loving desire is what opens to the force of true nature (24:19)Krishnamurti also inquired into the now, but he didn’t consider the influences of the past (26:32)When do you stop? When have you reached home? Or do you keep going? (30:09)The losses get greater and greater along the path, not less (33:33)Only in hindsight was it clear a teaching was developing (39:46)Human consciousness can be formed as ego but also expand into something in and of itself (44:38)The human soul is that which gives true nature life (46:34)The awakening of a force in Karen, opening her consciousness (50:31)The qualities of presence stayed with Karen as they came: strength, will, love, intelligence, joy (55:57)Appreciating the beauty of what consciousness is and can be (1:01:58)It took getting into the absolute to be able to recognize individual consciousness: the vajra body and the soul (1:02:40)The Hu symbol portrays the complete human being (1:07:45) Faisal Muqaddam, third spiritual explorer along with Karen & Hameed (1:12:02)Resources & ReferencesA. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali) and Karen Johnson, co-founders of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond ApproachKaren Johnson, The Jeweled Path: The Biography of the Diamond Approach to Inner RealizationA. H. Almaas & Karen Johnson, The Power Of Divine Eros: The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday LifeA. H. Almaas, The Pearl Beyond Price: Integration of Personality into Being: An Object Relations ApproachThe Socratic methodIdries Shah, The Land of Truth and Other StoriesPlato’s Theory of FormsJiddu Krishnamurti, The Awakening of IntelligenceThe Diamond Vehicle Revelations (Deep Transformation podcast)Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I?A Course in Miracles, Helen Schucman and the Foundation for Inner PeaceWhat is Vajra Body?The Hu symbol portrays the complete human being Faisal Muqaddam, initially the third spiritual explorer with Karen & HameedThe Jeweled Path Series is based on Karen Johnson’s wonderful, in-depth recounting of how the Diamond Approach came into being through Hameed Ali and herself in her book The Jeweled Path: The Biography of the Diamond Approach to Inner Realization, so ...
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • What We Can Do for Our Brains: Practical Ways to Cultivate Healthy, Agile Minds & Also Reduce the Risk of Dementia

    What We Can Do for Our Brains: Practical Ways to Cultivate Healthy, Agile Minds & Also Reduce the Risk of Dementia
    Oct 1 2026
    Ep. 243 | In this outstandingly useful and timely conversation, Dr. Roger Walsh (more often the co-host of the Deep Transformation podcast) is our expert guest, sharing his passion for brain health and his knowledge about what we can do to keep our brains active, high-functioning, and well. With a Ph.D. in neuroscience and several awards for brain research, Roger was also on the first research team to discover the older brain’s neuroplasticity, and he has been excited about the possibilities and developmental implications of this ever since. Whether we’re talking about the body’s physical capabilities or the brain’s cognitive ones, Roger explains that a lot of what we thought was “normal” aging is actually “disuse atrophy”—in other words, use it or lose it—and beyond that, cultivate it and enhance it! Roger would like to write a book on all the helpful information he has learned about brain health, but with people he cares for beginning to acknowledge they are wrestling with cognitive decline, he decided it’s time to get this information out now.After establishing the brain’s inherent potential for growth, Roger dives into the practicalities—outlining actions we can take that research shows will make a significant difference in either enhancing our cognitive functioning, increasing our longevity, reducing the risk of dementia, supporting a life of physical and mental well-being, or all of the above. From the startlingly beneficial effects of green tea to the harmful effects of plastics, pesticides, and wildfire smoke, Roger covers all the bases: exercise and diet, supplements and sleep, environmental risks and medical interventions, friendships and nature, meditation and service—in a way that feels inspiring and doable. This is brain health for everyone in a comprehensive nutshell, presented with Roger’s signature clarity, astuteness, warmth, and humor. Listen and reap the benefits. Recorded September 3, 2026.The information about brain care in this dialogue is not meant to constitute personal medical advice for any individual. Rather, it is information that listeners can take to their personal physician to discuss and assess with the physician.“If you’ve got to pick one thing, exercise is probably the best thing we’ve got for maintaining the brain and the body.”Topics & Time StampsIntroducing Roger Walsh, an MD with a PhD in neuroscience, several awards for brain research, author & professor emeritus of psychiatry, philosophy & anthropology (00:35)What we thought of as normal aging is actually “disuse atrophy” (02:10)What’s good for the body is good for the brain (05:37)Changing our cultural stereotype of aging (08:36)What affects us most: lifestyle choices + the genes we are born with (09:26)Neuroplasticity is the context our potential swims in (10:34)Care & maintenance of the brain falls into 5 major categories (11:42)Meditation’s significant benefits are both physical & mental (14:07)Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes: first comes exercise (16:18)For depression, exercise is both prophylactic & about as effective as antidepressants (19:29)Initiating new habits is the hardest part (21:24)The importance of friendships (24:17)The effects of our continuously fragmented attention (26:22)Sleep clears toxins—including plaques & tangles that can cause Alzheimer’s (29:02)The bad effects of light pollution (30:32)Purpose, service & contribution: people who serve live longer, happier, healthier lives (31:52)Being in nature cleanses psychic toxins: we are biophilic (38:19)Fluid intake has immediate as well as long-term benefits (47:55)Following the 3 main principles of diet (50:07)Environmental risks: we live in a chemical soup (54:11)Inhaling wildfire smoke particles moves them right into our brains (58:18)The overwhelming amount of plastic everywhere—including in our brains (1:00:18)Pesticides should be banned (1:03:27)Coffee, alcohol & the enormous benefits of green tea (1:04:21)Supplements: lithium, magnesium L-threonate & fish oils (1:07:23)Get regular medical work-ups! And correct any hearing loss or visual loss (1:15:48)Vaccinations have a significant benefit in reducing the risk of dementia (1:17:01)Olfactory enrichment can increase our olfactory capabilities but also enhance cognitive function (1:17:43)Poverty: reducing inequality is more important than ever (1:19:33)Roger’s motivation for getting this information out now (1:23:47)Resources & ReferencesRoger Walsh’s website: https://drrogerwalsh.comRoger Walsh, Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and MindGerontologist Kerry Burnight on the Deep Transformation podcast: From Lifespan to Joyspan: Embracing A Growth Mindset for AgingKerry Burnight, Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second HalfDeep Transformation’s A. H. Almaas Wisdom SeriesGloria Mark, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and ProductivityEdward O. Wilson, ...
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    1 hr and 26 mins
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