Sahara Rose · 405: The Future of Spirituality + Technology in a Social Media World with James McCrae

Episode 405: The Future of Spirituality + Technology in a Social Media World with James McCrae
By Sahara Rose

[00:12] Sahara
Namaste, it’s Sahara Rose and welcome back to The Highest Self Podcast, a place where we discuss what makes You, Your Soul’s Highest Evolvement.

[00:19] Sahara
If it’s your first time listening – welcome! We’re going to get real out there in this conversation. And if you’re here every week, you’re going to love this one!

[00:27] Sahara
So, this is a really philosophical conversation and I love getting into these topics where, again, we don’t know the answer, we don’t know what the future holds. And here we are, as spiritual, open people, trying to make sense with what we feel in our heart and what we know to be true, but then also, being open to the unknown, and that’s really what this conversation is about.

[00:50] Sahara
So, James McCrae, you may know him from the Instagram Words Are Vibration. He is a spiritual meme artist and what I love about him is, he’s very multi-dimensional, he calls himself a technology optimist, which is not a perspective you hear a lot about in the spiritual community. And it was so interesting having this conversation with him because, so often, I’m in conversations with people about “Where is the world going” and a lot of it is more negative, it’s more people saying “We’re getting more and more addicted to our phones and soon it’s going to be AI and it’s taking over, and we’re kind of entering into this technocrat social currency score, extremely governmentally-operated frequency” and a lot of people are afraid of where that’s going. And it was really interesting having this conversation with James because he held a totally different, and a very optimistic, perspective about us merging with technology, and how he actually sees it as a sign that we are evolving in consciousness.
So, again, not a perspective you hear every day.

[01:59] Sahara
And I love hearing different topics and conversations on the Podcast because it reminds me to continue to open my mind. And sometimes we can, even in spirituality, get stuck in our own echo-chambers of “5G is taking over”, whatever, and then, sometimes, I don’t know what is true, but it’s important to always remain open and hear new perspectives because there may also be an ounce of truth in that, that we have not yet been recognizing.

[02:25] Sahara
I also love this conversation because, like myself, James is very curious. He also considers himself to, sort of, be spiritually homeless, that we’re diving into all of these different spiritual topics and none of them are 100% right or 100% wrong, everything has its own ounce of truth.

[02:44] Sahara
So, in this conversation, we really speak about so many different topics, and what I love about it is, he weaves in his poetry. He has this new, incredible book that really speaks about what we’re experiencing right now in this crazy transformational, metamorphosis time, and speaks about it in such beauty and amusement and light. So, he really weaves in his poetry in this conversation.

[03:08] Sahara
And I feel like poetry can sometimes speak so much beyond just spoken conversational words, and it really drives home a point through an energy and a feeling.
So, I know you’re going to love it!

[03:22] Sahara
So, without further ado, let’s welcome James McCrae to The Highest Self Podcast.

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[04:29] Interview

[04:29] Sahara
Welcome James, to The Highest Self Podcast, it’s so great to have you here!

[04:33] James
Yo! What’s up?! So happy to be here and chat with you! Thanks for having me on!

[04:38] Sahara
And the first question I’d love to ask you is what makes you your highest self?

[04:43] James
A highest self for me is, it’s kind of less about what I’m doing, and it’s more about just the state of mind I’m in. The simplest way I would put it, and I was just writing about this, but, when I’m aligned with my intuition rather than my ego, because I think that the ego is what keeps us grounded, and that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the ego, but it’s kind of like if you’re going fishing, the ego is fishing in a shallow pond, you’re only going to, kind of, be on the surface level. But when you can cut through the clutter of your ego and access your intuition, I feel like that is connection with the higher self.
So, I think there’s people that use all kinds of definitions for – you know, you say higher self, some people say, you could say God, you could just say intuition. And I think that’s when you cut through the clutter of your conscious mind, cut through the clutter of your ego and access that vast space. It’s kind of like fishing in a deep ocean where you have access to, essentially, endless ideas and inspiration because you’re connecting with Source. And I think intuition is that, it’s kind of the umbilical cord that keeps us connected to Source our entire lives.
So, I think that’s kind of the gateway to accessing our higher selves, is living in that state of inspiration and an intuition.

[06:25] Sahara
I, one hundred percent agree! And it’s so funny because last night, I had a dream, and it’s so perfect that I’m talking to you today because you’ll understand this, people listening to this will understand this.
So, I had this dream that I was like “We need to create some sort of platform to connect people to their intuition” and then like another aspect of me was like “Well, we already have Instagram”, and it was like “No, Instagram is there to actually disconnect us from our intuition.” The download was, it’s, in a way, it’s disconnecting us because instead of those moments that we get the hits, we’re logging onto this platform that puts other people’s – maybe it’s their hits or their fears or their thoughts. Then the last part of my dream, I looked out the window of my actual bedroom and there was this dolphin that was coming out of this purple and pink and these psychedelic waters, and it was like “There’s a whole other world that we don’t see because we’re not connected to our intuition.”
So, I’d love for you to share your thoughts because I know we’ve had conversations on the beauty and the gift of social media and how we actually can share spiritual knowledge and inspiration (you yourself are a meme artist) and the way that we’re using this as a crutch that our moments of boredom, where that download could’ve come through, we’re, kind of like, plugged in, that you wait for your elevator, you look for your phone, you’re doing this, you look for your phone. What is that balance and how do you see it?

[07:50] James
Yeah. Social media, wow, it’s really a double-edged sword. Personally, I love Instagram, and I’m not ashamed to say it. That’s not to say I love the company behind Instagram. Facebook, now known as Meta, the new, the megabrand behind the Instagram App. We could talk about that as a company and what the leadership and what they’re doing to society and with our data. That’s one conversation we need to acknowledge that it’s not all good.
But in terms of Instagram, as a user experience, and as a product that not only connects people, but enables and encourages people to share. I’m a fan of that personally, and for me it’s not without its downsides, because it does suck our attention, it does take up a lot of time. There’s a reason I don’t check time spent on my phone because I would probably be, honestly, a little embarrassed by how much time I am spending on my phone.
At the same time, I think it’s all about, it’s just like life itself. We curate whatever experience of reality that we choose to, by the people we spend our time with, the types of work we spend our time doing, the media that we consume, the kind of conversations that we’re having – are they toxic conversations or are they uplifting conversations? We kind of curate our experience of reality, and I think that social media is a microcosm of that. We curate our relationship to social media.
So, I think it’s really important to be very conscious of how we’re spending our time online. I really don’t follow accounts that are going to trigger me or upset me or, you know, make me feel bad in any way. I kind of use it as an art platform and as a friendship platform and as an inspiration platform.
So, you’re right, you might just be standing in line and you pull out your phone, but for me, when I pull out my phone and I look at Twitter or Instagram, I might come across an image that suddenly inspires a meme. And I might make a meme while I’m sitting there or while I’m standing in line, or I might even have a little bit of an idea and just take out my notes App and I’ll wrote a little bit, like a poem or a tweet that I can share later.
So, for me, when I was a kid, I used to always carry a notebook in my pocket so I could write down little poems when I had time. So, for me, it’s just a tool and it’s really my art studio, and my art broadcast channel. So, it’s a double-edged sword, but it’s really what we bring to it that really is what we get back from it. So, I try to really be careful and curate my Feed and use it as a tool of expression and inspiration rather than getting sucked into the rabbit hole of some news story that is going to make me feel really depressed after I read it.

[11:13] Sahara
Absolutely! I mean, we wouldn’t be here having this conversation if it wasn’t for social media, specifically Instagram, and a lot of people wouldn’t be listening to this. But you probably wouldn’t even have careers because it allowed us to reach people without needing the middle man of a publicist or a major media company, or someone choosing us, right? And I think that’s the gift of, you can literally choose yourself and just be a content creator today, or an author, or a podcast host, there’s no doors that you need to blast through.
And like that double-edged sword, I find myself, the times that I’m about to maybe make a creative leap, let’s say I’m writing and I’m like “Oh, I’m stuck on the words” and that’s when I’ll go on Instagram and it’s almost like my ego’s way of protecting myself and keeping me confined of like “I can’t stand the state of, maybe, uncertainty or growth that I’m right now, so let me go get some hits, some really nice hits of some cool collages and some great quotes.” You know, I guess, in a perfect world, we would use it in a way that we’re coming into it with intentionality, just like we showed up on this Podcast and we’re like coming in, we’re doing this Podcast, we’re having this conversation, but it’s just, sort of, like the way the App is designed that I feel like that that’s what makes us always feel like “Well, I’m going to be behind, I’m not going to know what James ate for breakfast today. I’m not going to know what people are thinking about this conversation or this topic.”
And I think, for me, I don’t follow any accounts that bring me down, but I’ll find myself, I think through stories, ending up in this conversation that I really have nothing to do with and then trying to figure out the conversation.
Do you ever feel like, on social media, it’s made everyone feel like they need to have an opinion on everything?

[12:59] James
Oh yeah, for sure! It makes everyone feel the need to be outraged at something or pick a side or just, kind of, chime in to any topic, and without even giving it the necessary thought to have an informed opinion. It’s okay to say “I don’t know”, it’s okay to be like “I don’t know enough to have an opinion.” Because I think what we’re getting is one of the major problems with social media is, it puts us in a feedback loop where we’re only reinforced with the same ideology that we already have.
So, you could look at any issue from multiple sides, but you’re only going to be fed in, based on the algorithm, kind of a one-sided perspective that reinforces your already existing beliefs and it’s only going to reinforce your biases. And this is obviously a problem, and I think that it’s really important for people to expose themselves, the algorithm is not going to help us. I think it’s important to go out of our way to expose ourselves to opinions that we’re not familiar with and perspectives that we’re not familiar with.
And social media is great for enabling that, but I think you’ve got to make an effort to do it yourself because the way the App is structured, you’re, kind of, going to get your own biases reinforced and that is somewhat to blame for the division that’s currently in our society, because people only consume one side of any particular story and then they think anyone who doesn’t believe that is an idiot because they haven’t been spoon-fed the same exact headlines.
So, no one’s on the same page, and I think that, as humans, we need to take some personal responsibility to inform ourselves and educate ourselves, and not just blindly absorb whatever social media throws in front of us.

[15:01] Sahara
Yeah, absolutely. And I think the tricky part is, we’re like “Well, I don’t want content that triggers me, so I’m going to follow accounts that I agree with”, and then those accounts that you agree with, it ends up having that group thing of like “We all agree on drinking smoothies in the morning”, so the next thing we all agree on is to do acupuncture, then the next thing we agree on is to do this and that, and then it turns into, just like a political party is, it’s like “If you agree with this one thing, then you must agree with all of these other things, otherwise, you’re the other side and the other side is a bad guy.”
And you actually wrote this poem that’s on page 15 of your new book “How To Laugh With Amusement” and it starts with “Our prayers were passive-aggressive comments tossed carelessly into the internet cosmos”, can you read this poem for us?

[15:48] James
Absolutely! This one’s a doozy! It’s called “We Are The Universe Learning To Love Itself”.
And, what this was – I loved thinking about poetry as a point in time that reflects the times where it came from. So, I was trying to think how people in the future might look back at us today, because we always think “This generation has it all figured out”, “Our science is the best”, “Our philosophy is the best”, “We know where it’s at”. But you look back, throughout history, and things are always changing, new discoveries are always coming, and then everything just becomes outdated and you can really see through the cracks of the society’s beliefs in the past.
So, I tried to write a poem that looked at our society today, almost from the future, to better understand, from a higher perspective, the times we’re living in.

[16:51] Sahara
So good!

[16:53] James
So, I’ll read this now.

We are the Universe, learning to love itself,
like a shelter animal, learning to trust again.
If you’re reading this in the future, I can’t imagine how we, in our now, must look to you, in yours.
Don’t blame me, everyone else was doing it, so I did too.
We looked outward at a society built a top-sacred soil and searched for resources to suck and bleed dry.
We measured our worth by the power we yielded over others, at the expense of any assemblance of control, over ourselves.
We worshipped at the cold feet of golden corporate cows while an anointed infant messiah floated away down the river unnoticed.
We watched as every pure and honest human creation was stolen and used against us by the contagious alien forces of ego and greed.
Our sacred ceremonies were cigarette circles outside bars, four whiskeys deep.
Our love was the secrets we kept hidden, while sharing our fears with anyone who would listen.
We exchanged our indigenous wisdom for junk food and paper money, printed in bulk by the Federal Reserve and loaned at interest to the US Government, who sucked blood from its own children to pay the debt.
The words of our Prophets were mistaken for dogma.
And the soft radiance of the female spirit, was mistaken for something to conquer and own.
Our hunger was a bottomless hole we tried to fill with everything we didn’t need.
Our prayers were passive-aggressive comments tossed carelessly into the internet cosmos.
Our meditation was impatiently refreshing social media apps, waiting for somewhat one, anyone, to reach through the screen and touch us.
We debated the moral superiority of right- and left-hand puppets, moved by the same masked mad man, while a malloc sat atop his plastic pyramid, and laughed in black magic ritual, between ceremonial sips of semen and blood.
Our sex was a rushed and impersonal reenactment of bad porn, because we didn’t trust each other enough to open our hearts.
We spoke in argumentative absolutes because we had forgotten the subtle languages of poetry and myth.
Our best liars were given gold watches and government positions, while our truth-tellers mysteriously hung themselves in Paris hotels.
We ate genetically-modified cheeseburgers in front of flat-screen TVs, while Fox News barked propaganda between commercials.
Energy leaked from our souls like a broken faucet, feeding vampires and parasites, instead of our higher purpose.
Our salvation was a paycheck and six hours of dreamless sleep.
But on our best days, we were also golden, like a brilliant child who didn’t yet realize how beautiful and powerful she could be.
And you could almost see our light shining through our shadows.

[20:34] Sahara
Wow! Full body chills just hearing you read it, because, I mean, I can speak for myself, I think every single person can so deeply resonate with that, and there’s just, almost like such a sadness in being seen. There’s such a sadness in “Yeah, I do, sometimes just refresh my apps waiting for someone to touch me.”
What you said that we keep our love to ourself but share our fears with anyone who’ll listen, and just how often we bond – I think the conversation in the past two years has been like “So, the quarantine, I hear it’s going to get worse”, because we actually feel safer to trauma-bond than we do to actually share our love.
So, with all of that being said, where do you see humanity going now?

[21:26] James
Yeah, well, think it’s important to recognize the darkness as much as the light. I think that we live in a world of duality, and for me it’s about integrating that duality, as opposed to ignoring the shadow side. And I think that’s part of the role of poetry and art, is to expose that shadow side and to love it, and to shed light on it.
So, I think that, in terms of where society is going, there are a lot of utopians out there and there’s a lot of dystopians. There are a lot of people that think that we’re going into a great, grand awakening and that all the darkness will be extinguished from the earth. There are other people that think that we’re going into a dystopia, a technological dictatorship of some sort. And I don’t know where we’re going, but I suspect it’s going to be a mix of those two.
I think that, one of my greatest literary influences was Walt Whitman, the great American poet, and in his writing, he would talk about how there’s never been as much of Heaven or Hell as there is right now. Meaning that, Heaven and Hell are just states of mind that exist here on earth, and they’re always here, and the point of the human experience, is to balance the light and the dark, and to, basically, choose our own adventure on that path.
I often like to think of the human experience like a video game where we’re on an adventure, and maybe it’s to help accelerate our soul’s growth, maybe it’s to eventually reach enlightenment, maybe it’s just because we (our souls) have all of eternity to play with, so we’re just going to, kind of, drop into this 3D human experience for a while, just the same way that you and I might watch a movie to suspend our real selves for 2 hours, to get lost in this fantasy world. I think it’s possible that we’re just here to suspend our soul’s experience of eternity, to watch this human experience for a lifetime.
So, I think that the challenges and the darkness are built into the game, they’re kind of built into this experience.
So, I don’t think, if you’re playing a video game, there’s going to be bad guys, you don’t need to be afraid of them, you don’t need to give them your fear, you just need to learn how to navigate the game and the bad guys and the darkness are there to help us learn how to navigate.
So, I think that we’re moving into an accelerated future that’s going to be a lot more digital than it is now and there’s going to be elements of virtual reality built into the world that we’re moving into.
And I think that a lot of the current, our structures, are going to collapse. I think that we’re seeing the economic system, the political system, we’re seeing the last gasps of late-stage capitalism kind of playing out in front of us. And I think that there’s going to be some major shifts that are going to take place in the next 5 years, we’ve already seen them begin. And I think the future’s going to be very different, I think it’s going to be beautiful in a lot of ways and I think there’s still going to be challenges, I think there’s still going to be “darkness” to deal with because that’s the human condition.
But having said that, ultimately, I’m very optimistic about the future and I think that we are going to be moving towards some more sustainable systems, because we’re kind of worn out the old systems, they were good for a while and now they’re in need of some major changes. And I think we’re going to see a lot of those major changes in our lifetime, and be part of defining what it means to live in the world that we’re going to be building from here.

[25:58] Sahara
Yeah, it’s so true, and I think that it’s so much easier for us to think in this really dualistic lens of like “Okay, the future is work. We’re going off-grid, we’re just going to build these communities and grow all our own food and it’s going to be amazing”, it’s Atlantis, it’s Lemuria, it’s the new Rendition, it’s going to be lit.
And then the other of like “Because if we don’t do that, we’re going to be tracked and on a social currency score and this and that”, and who knows, maybe, I think there’s going to be the option for people to choose either of those sides, but I think the vast majority of us, just like we are today, are going to be living somewhere in the middle, there just aren’t that many people screaming about that on the top of their lungs as there are the people who are in either direction.
And I know we’ve had a conversation on technology vs. nature and the integration of that and what that could look like, and you shared a bit about Terrence McKenna and his last interview and what he foresaw.
Can you share a little bit more about that?

[27:00] James
Yeah. So, one of my biggest influences from a spiritual and intellectual standpoint is Terrence McKenna. And the best way I would describe Terrence McKenna is as a psychedelic philosopher. In the 70s, he was really one of the first Americans to go to South America and live among Shamans, and to study Psilocybin and Ayahuasca. He was just an incredibly brilliant person and had a way of articulating things that was really just incredible.
So, I’m a technology optimist, I think that technology will be used in service to humanity, and I also think, like you said, going off-grid and living sustainable lives, is very important.
I think returning to local supply chains and local systems and local government is a very good idea. So, I’m interested in what does the best of both words look like. And Terrence McKenna was the same, he was very much a fan of technology, but also, he was as much of a granola hippy as you can possibly be, right?
So, how can these two worlds work together? And once Terrence took, I think he took like a crazy amount of Psilocybin, ten grams or something like that. Terrence McKenna is the origin of the term heroic dose, which means like a five plus gram dosage of Psilocybin, and he encouraged people to take heroic doses because that’s really when you’re going to break through and start having visionary experiences.
So, on one of his many heroic doses, Terrence was shown a vision of the future, and this was hundreds, if not thousands, of years in the future. And what he saw was, a group of humans living in the jungle, completely in touch with nature, they were naked, they were eating off the trees, there was no footprint of civilization that could be seen, so it was like a natural paradise.
But these same people, whenever they closed their eyes, behind their eyelid, they would access a virtual world that was more amazing than you can imagine, where they could interact in virtual reality and exchange things and words and comments and hang out and do business, in this virtual world, while they still remained completely in touch with nature.
So, I think that’s an extreme example, but I think that that type of future is possible because what, and what McKenna said about that was, living in the virtual world to some degree, takes a lot of the pressure off of our footprint on earth. If we can have some kind of a virtual reality, it means we don’t need to use as much gasoline here on earth, to travel, or to build cities that destroy the natural habitats.
So, it actually, the virtual world has a potential to help restore earth to a natural state because we can take some of the pressure off of the earth.
So, I love the vision of us being more connected to nature, and at the same time, more connected to technology. And what does that look like? I think it’s too early to say, but I think a future like that, because when you think of something like that, it doesn’t create a divisive position of “Oh, do I want to be on the side of technology or do I want to be on the side of nature”, I think these things can work together to create a future that is better for all of humanity.

[31:20] Sahara
Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that optimistic perspective because a lot of the circles that I run in, the technology path is more about the downsides of it. So, so many people have this view of, especially when you’re more in the spiritual world, earth-based etc., we do tend to focus on the downfalls of technology, and I mean, we wouldn’t be here, you’re in Austin and I’m in Miami, and we’re literally talking through this, like, crystal device, and recording and people are listening to this all through technology.
So, sometimes we do forget and we do take – I mean, we wouldn’t be who we are right, with these thoughts and perspectives, and potentially even consciousness, or this type of consciousness if it wasn’t for technology. And I guess, what I wonder, with this – today, Facebook announced that they’re changing to Meta and different companies are building these meta versions, which, to my understanding, are essentially cities in VR that you can go visit your Gucci store and buy your virtual Gucci shoes. And you could go visit the cinema and watch a movie there and have just an entire shop and have outfits and do everything in this virtual world. And potentially, eventually, people are going to be investing more time in who they are in this virtual city than they are in their real life, but in a way, that’s kind of already happening with social media.

[32:47] James
Well, especially with kids and video games, that’s even crazier, that’s one thing that I don’t do, is play video games, but people get lost in the world of virtual reality in video games, where they collect tokens or, you said, virtual Gucci shoes, they’ll spend, having the right digital items that they can purchase in a video game is more important to some kids than it is, anything they might have in real lives.
So, kids are really, I almost want to start playing video games, I’m not going to, but I almost want to, just to kind of get a feel of what it’s like to have an avatar that you care about and dedicate to, as much as your physical avatar. That’s pretty crazy but a lot of kids are already doing that with video games.

[33:43] Sahara
Right! I mean, NFTs are that, people spend millions of dollars on a piece of art that everyone can see because it’s online, but them just owning the code, it’s so far out there and so ungrounded that our conscious minds can’t understand it.
So, for me, I try to remain open and look at the positives, but it feels, to me, that, I mean, in a way, this is already happening, these kids are paying so much attention to video games, but then you see other girls who photoshop all of their photos and videos, that they look like an entirely different person on social media, and I’m like “Wait, isn’t the point of looking good on social media, so they want to meet up with you and you build an in-person connection?” But they actually have no intention to ever meet any of these people in real life, so all that matters to them is how they – they essentially are creating avatars of themselves, the only difference is it’s based off of their actual photo, at one point in time, and then you have people who catfish you, it’s not even based off of their photos.
So, I’m just curious what’s going to happen to the human body when we’re so disconnected that it’s almost like it doesn’t even matter what I look like, what I feel like, what my home is like, because I’m in the matrix all the time, and that’s what matters.

[35:01] James
Yeah. And you know, being authentic in real life is always the most rewarding, you know. Having authentic connections, you can, there’s always going to be people that pretend to be someone they’re not, and you can kind of see through it, and then they make connections that are surface-deep.
So, I think the same thing applies to social media, the more that you’re just authentic, and yourself, and real, people can see that. I’ve had social media relationships that were very deep and rewarding because they were true and honest, and from the heart. And then you meet those people in real life and then they become your real friends. So, it’s still, at the end of the day, it’s so important just to – even if you have an avatar or whatever you’re doing to your profile picture or you have a cartoon, or whatever it is, just being honest and being true to yourself, from the heart, and finding people that you vibe with on a deeper level, that’s always going to go deeper than – you can’t catfish true friendships, and that’s going to be the truth no matter universe, metaverse, any-verse that we could ever imagine.

[36:20] Sahara
Yeah, it’s so important and I hope the younger kinds that were completely born into this, they have that awakening and that recognition within themselves because it’s – we grew up not having the internet and we’re the only generation, ever, that got to experience our childhood of not having the internet and then later on getting it. And I remember making my MySpace and then my Facebook, and creating, but really, we went into it with the purpose of “Oh, this is a thing for me to actually connect with real-life friends”, whereas a lot of these kids are coming into it as “I see mom and dad, and they’re just in their room working all the time, they’re not seeing anyone, so, maybe, this lifetime, I’m just going to be in this room, and it’s like who I am online that really matters”, and investing all of their time and attention into basically building this Sims character of who they are.
So, I’ll be curious to see – I also have faith that a lot of the rainbow children are being born right now and they do have these higher levels of consciousness and that maybe they can use all of these technological advancements to their power and to see the different holes in it.
So, I’m curious, what is your take on, in this more digital world, it’s effect on intuition? Because something that I find, often, is that, kind of coming back to the group thinking – you made this post that there’s so many different modalities and languages that we’re approached with, so I’d love for you to share this poem that you recently wrote, because right now, I’m seeing on social media, people are like “It’s Jesus, it’s Christ, Christ is the way” and then other people are like “It’s shadow work and it’s Goddesses, and it’s this and it’s that” and it’s almost confusing people to what is the truth.
So, can you share a little bit about this poem that you wrote?

[38:06] James
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I think that there’s been a big awakening in the spiritual world in recent years, and people are waking up in one way or another to some kind of a higher spiritual truth, which is great. But at the same time, I’ve seen so many people get attached to their version of truth, you know what I mean?
And I grew up in a, more or less, a strict Christian home, so I kind of saw that side of things where you believe “Okay, Christianity is the true way”, but then you’re exposed to Buddhism and you’re like “Oh, that’s interesting, let me explore that”, “Oh, this has a different set of beliefs, but it kind of all comes back to compassion the same way that Christianity does”, so, I’m a big fan of staying open-minded.
Another thing I wrote recently was “Don’t tell me how spiritual you are, show me how open-minded you are” because dogma is just not the way. I think that everything comes back to mythology. We’re all creating our own mythologies, there’s different mythologies to follow. I think it’s a trap to start taking mythologies too literally. I think it’s, once you claim to know some kind of a literal truth, I think you’re in trouble because then you can’t see anyone else’s perspective.
So, yeah, I wrote this, the line that came to my mind is “It’s all intuition” and it goes:

[39:55] James – poem
Some people pray to Jesus,
Some people are guided by ancestors,
Some people talk to aliens,
Everyone has a different mythology from which they derive truth.
None are totally wrong, and none are totally right,
They’re all metaphors for the same unexplainable thing.
Words fail to accurately describe the nature of reality,
Don’t fight over who has the best story,
Hold space for them all.
It’s all intuition,
Trust yours.

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[42:50] Sahara
So good, and I resonate with that so much! And I think it’s this deep human longing to have our system and have our community and “I’m a Buddhist”, I’m a Hindu”, “I’m a Jew”, “I’m an alien, galactic federation channel”, “I’m an ancestral lineage healer”, “I’m a Kali Ma, Shakthi”, whatever. Even if we’re kind of creating these new things, but they are essentially ideologies and essentially stories, right? And I think that they serve us when you’ve grown up in one, to – for example, yourself, growing up Christian, I know your first book, which I loved, was really more about your journey into Buddhism, so, it was helpful for you to have almost like a pathway of these different beliefs that are already set up and formulated that you’re like “Wow, I actually do resonate with this”, but then I think the next level of one’s journey is to also then not take that as The Bible and then to continue on, and eventually getting to a point that you’re like “Yes to all of it” and exactly as you said “None are totally right either”.

[43:55] James
Yeah, I think it’s important to be humble and recognize that “Okay, we’re human beings, we’re the smartest animal that we know of”. I’m sure that there are other beings out there in the Universe, in some other dimension, that are incredibly more intelligent than we are, but we tend to think “Oh, we’re humans we know it all.” And we think, to me it’s – there’s so much pride in assuming that you’ve cracked the code of reality, “Oh, no, this is what happened. This happened then it was this, then it was this”.

[44:34] Sahara
“I read it in a book. How can that book be wrong?”

[44:36] James
“I read it in a book that was written thousands of years ago and it was translated multiple times with the meaning changing every single time”. Words are fallible, language is open to infinite interpretation, and that’s why I say everything is true, nothing is literal, because in a metaphorical sense, there’s truth to every perspective on earth. Everyone on earth is right from the perspective that they’re looking from, but that doesn’t mean that their version of truth represents some kind of literal, factual, universal truth.
So, I think it’s really important for humans to be humble and recognize “I’m using the best tools that I have to make sense of the world and they’re going to be limited.” Our eyesight can only see a tiny fraction of the light spectrum; our ears can only tune into a tiny fraction of the sonic spectrum. And our minds are the same way, we can only figure out so much.
So, it’s really important to be intellectually humble and say “This framework works for me and I like this, and this helps me navigate, and I’m going to use this as best I can to navigate my way through the world, but if something else comes along, that challenges my ideology and helps me expand, it’s okay to shift your perspective and open yourself up to a new one.”
So, I love the idea of just everyone in the whole world, sitting around a campfire and everyone just goes around and says “What’s your story of reality? What’s your creation myth? Give us your story, give us your version”, and just hearing everyone’s interpretation of what this life is. I think they’re all stories, they’re all myths and we don’t have the intellectual capacity to really understand our purpose here. We can only use, and that’s why I love poetry, because poetry is metaphorical language, and I think we live in a metaphorical world more than we know we do.
So, just having some humility, staying open-minded and having compassion for other people’s perspectives is so much more useful than getting caught in a certain dogmatic framework, which might work for you, but that’s not the only belief system that exists in the world.

[47:29] Sahara
I love that vision of everyone sitting around the campfire and it’s just like “So, why do you think we’re here?”, and that’s like “Well, I think we’re here because of this guy named Siddhartha. Why do you think we’re here?”, “Oh, I think we’re here because the Ramayana”, “Why do you think we’re here?”, it’s just cool, maybe all of those things happened, maybe none of them, who knows.
And that’s what I love about having this Podcast and having so many different spiritual conversations, it’s just because, how can you believe there’s only one truth, only one way, when there’s all of these different people who, based off of their lives, experiences, have come to different points of realization.
And I think different people have different, if you want to call it soul contracts, which is more than New Age terminology, but maybe they are more likely, in a certain lifetime, to adhere more to certain spiritual principles. Maybe this lifetime, for them, is about sexual healing, and tantra is the thing for them; or this lifetime, for them, is about dropping all material desires and it’s more of that deep Buddhist path.
And throughout our lives we shift and something serves us for a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, and then we move on, and it’s so important to know that these are all systems and tools to serve us, but once it gets to a point that it’s holding us back, and it’s like “Oh, I’m not able to…”
For example, a friend of mine, they are very into Buddhism, but according to their vows, they’re not allowed to actually learn about other spiritual practices or partake in them, that’s part of their Buddhist vows. But again, I understand, their perception is “We want to have purity of the lineage and we don’t want the lineage to be distorted by other points of view”, which, again, I understand that. And it’s almost like, that limits your curiosity and your growth, and even creates a fear because the only reason why someone would say that is because they’re afraid of “You might find something else that you find true.”

[49:29] James
Yeah. And I respect lineages and I respect traditions, and even though I don’t identify with the Christian faith anymore, I’m very grateful that I grew up with that because it gave me a strong foundation. I always felt like I had a relationship with God, from an early age. So, even though my definition of God has changed since then, it did help give me that foundation.
So, I do think there’s value in preserving the Buddhist lineage, as long as you’re not condemning people who don’t follow it. If that’s what works for you, and you believe in this practice enough that you want to keep it alive and maintain its integrity, I think that’s great, as long as you don’t think that anyone else is wrong for not following the same thing that you chose to.
It’s kind of like, you mentioned soul contracts, it reminds me of – it’s like choosing a college major. Each soul came to earth and it’s like, or before we came to earth, it’s like “What do you want to major in?” and it’s like “Oh, you know what, I could really use some mindfulness. I could really use some patience. I could really use some; maybe I want to go and major in learning to be a warrior and learning how to fight for what I believe in”, maybe we all just chose majors before we came, and we’re here learning the major we chose. That doesn’t mean if I major in literature and you major in mathematics, that doesn’t mean that mathematics don’t exist, it just means it’s your field of study and not mine. So, it’s like, yeah, we’re all on our path, we’re all fulfilling our soul contracts, we have to respect and honor that other people have other majors and there’s a lot of different courses you can take on earth school, and we need them all.

[51:31] Sahara
I love that so much, and it’s exactly right. And I think, yeah, what’s challenging is when someone is so convinced that their major is the way, they’re like “Mathematics is the thing! Everyone needs to know mathematics, it helps you with this, it helps you with that.” So, if I see you don’t know math, I’m like “Do you not know about math?” Again, it’s coming from a place of passion, but then it also, I mean, that’s what basically has happened throughout the history of time, the forced conversions of “Oh no, but I’m really helping you because I know the right way and you don’t know what you don’t know” and I see this happening in its own micro ways in our society. And then, there’s also positivity in that because I feel like our generation, we are jumping between so many different spiritual perspectives because we’re exposed to them in social media, whereas back in the day, you were born in a village, whatever your religion was in that village, that’s probably all you’d ever be exposed to, whereas for us, we’re like – just like so many of us have become politically homeless, it’s almost like we’re spiritually homeless, yet, every or at the same time, that we’re just picking and choosing “Oo, I like this concept from here and I like that concept from there, and I like this”, and we’re creating our own beautiful quilts of all of it. And the long-term of that happening, that creates world peace because most wars are fought over religion, so if we can all see the beauty and truth of all religions, we will have a peaceful planet.

[53:01] James
Yeah. It reminds me of musical genres – at one time there was just country music, there was blues music and there was classical music, and then rock and roll kind of blended blues and country, and then someone integrates jazz into that, and then at some point hip hop comes along, and then you’ve got people that are blending hip hop and rock and roll and electronic music all together, and I love that. It just gives us a bigger playground to play in, it gives us different reference points and tools and techniques to utilize.
If you don’t have discipline or it can be easy to, kind of, get lost when there’s so many options, and you know, let’s not forget that there was a big phase in the 90s of rap metal, that was awful, so, mixing genres does not always lead to great outcomes. You can get into some trouble if you don’t have a strong foundation. So, I think it’s a balance of being grounded and having that strong foundation, and being centered within yourself, before you go around and start trying to mix and match religious and spiritual techniques because it could be really easy to get ungrounded and get lost and start trying to channel aliens without having a true sense of grounded balance within yourselves. It really is a balance.
And I think it just all comes back to your own presence and being grounded. I think that’s square one, but once you have that, then you can start kind of playing around with all the amazing ideas that the spiritual world has to offer.

[55:07] Sahara
Yeah, and I love that you said that because there is, also, the importance, and I feel like what’s also missing in our generation is to really dive into “Well, why are things that the way they are?”
For example, for me, with Ayurveda, I went to Ayurveda school for two years in India, learned about the ins and outs about the way it was, without any form of change, to then be so thoroughly immersed in this science, that I could see “Okay, now, here is where I feel we can add in more modern, nutritional science etc.”, but if I just read some Instagram post on Ayurveda, I’m like “You know what bitch, I’m doing my own thing”, I wouldn’t understand the intricacies of why things are the way that they are. And I feel like, so often, we think that reading an infographic on something is akin to reading a book on it, so we may be like “Oh, you can channel your ancestors at any time, love that! Let me do that!” and then you didn’t open up the right container for it, or there’s certain reasons why there are rituals and processes there, they’ve done thousands of years of research really to why. Such as in the plant medicine world, I can’t be like “You know what, I’m going to my own kind of Ayahuasca, it’s going to be a drop in party, people can come in and out, that’s what I’m vibing with”, it’s like, no, that’s why it’s not served in that way.
So, I feel like there’s that need to understand why these sciences and disciplines have developed in their way, and then from that place of grounding, then, also have the courage to look at how they can be adapted for our modern times.

[56:42] James
One hundred percent! Yeah, I meditate every morning and I think it’s good to go deep into something that’s sturdy because I talked about how everything is mythology, and I think that’s true, but some mythologies, because they’ve been around for so long, they’re just more durable, they’re more steady, it’s harder to get lost in them. So, things like Ayurveda or just meditation, whatever it is, I do think it’s important to familiarize yourself and go deep with a mythology that is durable and steady just to give you some balance and to ground you, instead of running off to do Ayahuasca the first chance you get. That should come a little bit later, because, you’re right, there’s a reason people have been meditating for thousands of years. It works, it’s been tried and tested many, many, many times. So, yeah, just having strong roots.
I wrote something else recently, if I could read this really quick, about – “We often want to reach for the sky, but in order to do so, we need to have our feet very grounded.W
So, this was an Instagram post I wrote, it says: “The highest calling requires the deepest grounding. The tallest trees have the strongest roots. Your dreams don’t start in the sky, they start in the deep dark soil.”
So, we want to expand, we want to reach, have our head in the clouds because that’s kind of where it’s fun, but unless you have a really solid foundation, you’re going to get lost up there.
I did Combo for the first time this week and I’ll tell you that that was not a fun experience. I’ve done Psilocybin and Ayahuasca, where I would consider a fun experience, because you get all these insights and you get downloads and you access, just like your higher self, essentially, and you can see things from a big perspective and it’s kind of beautiful. Combo wasn’t like that, it was rough, it was not fun, but it was about cleansing and purging and purifying the body. And I’m still integrating that experience, but something like that, it humbles you and it grounds you. And I think it’s really important if you want to, eventually, expand higher, you need to ground lower first, and it’s ‘as above, so below’, it’s really about that balance in all things through life.

[59:43] Sahara
I don’t know who said this, if it was you or maybe M.N. Zek, but someone wrote “A lot of people want to reach ascension, but they haven’t mastered grounding”.

[59:56] James
I love that.

[59:57] Sahara
And it was just so accurate because I feel like – Ascension, such a buzz word right now. Even this is called Highest Self Podcast, we want to expand, we want to ascend, people want to astral-project, they want to go reach their alien star seed family, and that’s beautiful, and there may be some childhood traumas there, there may be some forms of attachment, there may be some issues in your nervous system.
I feel like, so often, we maybe even bypass those very human and mental health things that, no matter who you are, we are all going to have some of them as long as we’re in a human body, because it’s easier and “more fun” and “more free” to be like “You know what, the reason why I’m crazy is because I’m actually a Sirian, I’m not even from here, that’s the reason why.
I think there’s that beauty of having a connection to something that’s beyond this world and to have that, again, that balance and that awareness that also some things may be related to your mental health or the way that you were brought up or the fact that we’re in this 2-year long pandemic, that also is going to play a role in how you feel.

[1:01:14] James
Yeah. I’ve spent years now, and I’m still on this journey of moving from the head to the heart, or even the head to the body, being in the body. It’s so easy for me just to be in my head and imagining and daydreaming, that’s just kind of who I am, and get lost in the world of ideas and imagination. But year by year, I’m getting better at living in the body. And instead of writing all day, taking time to dance and to move my body and to have cacao instead of coffee. So, I’m putting myself in my body rather than in my head. And that’s a discipline but it just, when you do that, your ideas will come from a place of just like a deeper truth, because the body’s wisdom is actually greater than the mind’s wisdom, and calming your nervous system. Because I think that intuition ultimately is a bodily sense, it’s kind of like you’re picking up something in your auric field, which you have to do through the body, not through the mind.
So, just connecting with the body and that’s what Combo did very, very much so, was just put you in touch with your body and all the different components that are, you know, both, in the physical sense and the auric sense, that are part of our physical system.
And yeah, that’s just a good compass when you can feel whether or not something feels true in the body or not. That’s a really strong compass, that’s something that the mind can’t always provide.

[1:03:08] Sahara
Yeah, I so resonate with you that I can also be very easily in the mind and thinking of these different scenarios. And also, I love that, I love having these philosophical conversations where we’re like “What is happening?” I love that! And for me, that’s why embodiment is where it’s at, dancing, having non-linear movement, where I’m just moving my body.
I was in this practice of journaling 2 pages every single morning and I’m like “Honestly, I actually feel better if I don’t necessarily do that practice first thing, and I just move my body”, because most of the things that I was worried about just naturally go away without me needing to process it and where does it come from, and then I need to do something about it.
So, I feel like, because we are just so much in our heads in this society, most of the times we’re not even in human connection, we’re having Zoom conversations etc., it’s very ungrounding, it’s very Vata, it’s very Air, that we need to make the practice to actually be in the body, whereas back in the day, I mean, even several hundred years ago, you were working on a field, in a farm, in a factory, you were in your body all the time, you didn’t get a chance to have conversations like this. So, it’s important to make the practice the quality that you’re lacking in your life.

[1:04:25] James
Totally! And I would recommend to any writer or creative, because I get up and I write every morning, and more recently I’ll get up and dance first or do some stretching first, and it really, there’s something about – I think ideas are a form of energy and when we get that energy moving, then our mind can pick up on that energy and start to actually download into information. So, yeah, absolutely.

[1:04:58] Sahara
Yeah, that’s why I also love just going on walks too, it’s just the body in motion. Sometimes we get stuck on an idea or loop with an idea, but then, once you get the body in motion, the ideas can flow and then you can open up space for those higher ideas to come through that almost don’t have the space to when you’re just stuck in just the thoughts and the stresses and the response and the ping-pong game that we’re playing with the world. So, yes to all that!
And there is another poem I would love for you to share. So, this is the poem “I want to believe it Universe, when you say you have my back”. I loved this one so much!

[1:05:36] James
It’s called “Trust Issues with the Universe”.

[1:05:39] Sahara
It’s so funny.

[1:05:40] James
And that’s exactly what it is, so, here I go.

I want to believe it Universe,
When you say you have my back.
I want to jump off the cliff of my comfort zone
and know that you will catch me.
I want to laugh on life’s rocky rollercoaster,
and wink at the sky in a cute gesture of mutual understanding,
instead of hugging my worries like an abusive teddy bear, afraid to let go.
I would love to dance with you under moonlight, on the eve of the Apocalypse.
We could make such a marvelous team,
and yet, I’m skeptical.
After all, and please excuse me for asking, “Why exactly should I trust you?”
What have you done to earn my confidence?
I look out my window and see a world insane and millions of people in pain.
Charlatans take what the hones earn, while the highest intentions crash and burn.
Mothers struggle to feed their children,
While innocent black men provide cheap prison labor for deranged corporations,
based on bogus cannabis charges.
What kind of trustworthy Universe allows this to happen?
I don’t mean to be rude, but either you’re not as intelligent as you claim,
or you’re spending too much time on vacation.
Wait for an explanation, waits longer.
The sound of silence remains. Sigh.
It’s no wonder people fight,
Abandonment trauma from Source causes the deepest trust issues.
All we want is to feel safe.
Turns attention within.
Then again, Universe, maybe I don’t need to trust you,
Maybe you’re just a test,
the trickster archetype,
a cosmic game for souls to play,
and your challenges are designed to make me stronger.
Maybe seeking assurance in you is just reliance on yet another external source from my own salvation?
A distraction from my own inner light,
A light which contains a microcosm reflection of all light in the living cosmos.
Maybe I only need to trust myself.

[1:08:09] Sahara
So good and so relatable! Like, the times that, you know, we want to take the leap into the unknown and know for sure we’ll make it, fear doesn’t exist but there’s that humanness in us that’s like “Well, I actually don’t know”.
And what is your advice for people who feel that way? They feel that there is, maybe, greater guidance out there, but at the same time they’re recognizing that that Universe they’re seeking for is them? How do we come to place with the external vs. the internal trust?

[1:08:45] James
Yeah, exactly. And I just think it’s an important balance because it’s easy for people like you and me to be like “Trust the Universe, that feels good.” I love posting things on social media because I can get feedback and see where other people are coming from. It kind of comes back to the idea of spiritual bypassing, which is a big topic on to itself, but the debate is whether or not trusting the Universe and just believing that everything is going to work out to your advantage, is that form of spiritual bypassing because what about all the people in the world who are suffering and life is not working out to their advantage. So, if you’re saying that, you’re disregarding the experiences of less privileged people.
So, I think it’s a very important balance, right? And I think, ultimately, we cannot affect the external world through force. I think you can only affect the external world by going within yourself and changing yourself. I think that, to a degree, the Universe is a mirror, and to a degree, again, because I said, all things are metaphors, so not every statement is true at all times for all people. But I think it’s true that we affect, maybe we don’t affect reality as a whole, we can’t change the video game, but we can change our experience of the video game, we can change things internally that will change our experience of reality.
So, I think it’s okay to say “I trust the Universe”, but I wanted to just give, in that poem, show another side of that. And it’s like, yeah, we can trust the Universe, but also, in a way, we can’t, because things do go wrong for many people. So, that’s not always fair to say, but even if that is true, we still can trust ourselves and we can trust ourselves to navigate the Universe, and to navigate the pitfalls of reality because we do have a fractal microcosm of the light of the Universe inside us, we are all microcosm expressions of Source, I believe. And when we recognize that within us, and we engage with the Universe from that place of inner presence, then we’re more equipped to affect change in the outside world.

[1:11:26] Sahara
There is this story that I heard that there was this man, this very religious man, and his house was burning down. So, he goes to the top of the roof and his house is burning and it’s coming up and he’s like “God, God, please save me! God, God, please get me out of here!” and up the ladder comes this man, he’s like “Take my hand”, he’s like “No, no, no, I’m waiting for God, I’m waiting for God”, and then these firefighters come with their big truck and they’re like “Hop on, we can get you”, he’s like “No, no, no, I’m waiting for God”, he’s like “God, where are you, God, I have my full trust in you, God, I’m waiting for you”, and then over his head comes a helicopter and they’re like “Grab this rope, we’ll protect you”, he’s like “No, no, no, I put my full trust in God”, and then he burned and died. And he went to the afterlife and he’s like “God, where were you? I put my full faith in you, I trusted you and you didn’t show up for me”, and God’s like “What are you talking about? I showed up for you in that man, I showed up for you in those firefighters and I showed up for you in that helicopter but you wouldn’t take my support”. And I love the story so much because it’s like, God is in everything, and also, we are the Gods that we have been waiting for.
So, sometimes it’s like, and I’ll even be this way, I’m like “God, why is there so much pain and suffering? Can’t you do something about it?” and it’s like no, turn that finger around at me, what can I do about this?

[1:12:52] James
Yeah. And you know what, I love that so much and I’ll say as well, to tie this back, God is in technology, because everyone wants to evolve and everyone wants to expand and everyone wants to ascend to 5D, right? But then when we see a virtual reality that’s growing, and artificial intelligence, we’re afraid of that. Well, what if these are all tools to help accelerate our own evolution? What if technology and 5G technology…

[1:13:29] Sahara
Damn, you’re getting controversial on this one!

[1:13:32] James
I think so!

[1:13:34] Sahara
5G, we’re back to 5G!

[1:13:35] James
Exactly, we want 5D but we’re afraid of 5G. But I’m just saying what if these things are in some ways connected, what if technology is part of our evolution? And it kind of reminds me of, I’ve gotten into arguments with friends over this, where, I think that technology is, it’s already enabling telepathy let’s say. I can post something on Instagram, that will instantly be, I’m seen by thousands of people and I’m telepathically communicating with them through the power of technology. And I’ve had friends that say “Well, but that technology is a crutch, if we didn’t have that technology, we would eventually learn how to communicate telepathically, without it, just with our own human mind”, and it’s like maybe, but how long does that skill take to develop, technology is right there.
So, another metaphor, another parabola, like the one you just said, I love one, there’s a man sitting by the river, and he’s been sitting there for the past 10 years, and he’s meditating, and the Buddha walks by him and the Buddha says “Why are you sitting by this river? You’ve been meditating here for 10 years”, and he says “Yes, I’m trying to learn how to levitate so I can cross the river”, and the Buddha says “Yeah, but the ferry costs a nickel, you can just use the ferry to go across the river, it’s right there and it’s going to enable you to cross”. So, I think that technology, that’s part of God’s plan as well and it’s part of the gift that we’re being given to evolve into a more ethereal type of world.

[1:15:22] Sahara
Yeah, and I love that perspective because it’s really one that we don’t hear so much and it’s, you know, we can create a case for anything, and I can create, right now, a case, I met my husband through an App. If I didn’t have the dating app called Bumble, I don’t know if I would’ve ever met him, so I would say technology majorly helped me out there.
A friend of mine had a cyst in her ovary and she was living in the jungles of Costa Rica for 2 years before, luckily had just moved to Miami, and was able to get an emergency surgery to get it removed, but if she was in that jungle, I don’t know what would’ve happened, not as good of a circumstance.
So, sometimes we forget, again, we take it so for granted. I remember as a kid having to run so many errands with my parents like “Okay, now we’re going to Home Depo, now we’re doing this”, people don’t have to do that anymore because they can order it online and they get their time back and it’s shipped to them. Again, what are you going to do with that extra time now? And I just interviewed Sadhguru and we were talking about this, and he’s like “We have so much more time but what a lot of people are doing is, they’re numbing themselves out for whatever, drinking, drugs, even social media, they’re bringing in the energy of numbingness, whereas we can take that extra time that we’ve been gifted because of technology as use it towards expanding our consciousness.

[1:16:43] James
Exactly, yeah! I met my fiancé on Tinder as well, so these dating Apps can – I think God can work through any tool. God can work through the Internet, God can work through social media, I’ve had people reach out to me that found me on some random Google search, so, there are, I think that when you’re aligned and when you’re on the right path, I think that the same way that the world can be a mirror, that includes technology, and this can be part of our own growth and we can find synchronicities through the internet, as much as we can through any other medium.

[1:17:25] Sahara
And it really just comes down to you, how you use it and the level of consciousness that you’re operating from, and then, whether it’s on social media or in real life, that’s why you’re going to attract, that’s what you’re going to – the realm that you’re going to be playing in. So, it’s up to us to make those choices that serve us and serve the planet.
So, all of this is so good, so beautiful, and I want to leave it with one beautiful last quote that you said in the book – “I Like Your Happiness”, can you share that with us?

[1:17:58] James
It says:

I like your happiness, I said,
Where did you get it?
This old thing? she answered?
I made it myself.

[1:18:10] Sahara
So beautiful and so true! It’s really up to us, our own creations, happiness, online, offline, in any realm, we get the choice.
So, thank you so much for sharing with us all this beautiful wisdom, I loved this conversation! And where can listeners get your new book?

[1:18:30] James
Yeah, absolutely. So, my new book, “How To Laugh In Ironic Amusement During Your Existential Crisis”, is available now. You can order it through, just check out the link in my Bio on Instagram and my Instagram handle is @wordsarevibrations. And this is the first ever book of published memes, it’s a collection of poetry and memes, and it’s the first time that a collection of memes has actually been published in a book.

[1:19:01] Sahara
Wow, you truly are a meme artist! Well, thank you so much for expanding our world view to a perspective that we don’t get to hear so often, and for bringing all of this wisdom into such a palatable way where we really can laugh at out existential crisis and find the amusement of it all. So, thank you!

[1:19:22] James
Thank you so much, this was a treat.

[1:19:24] End of Interview
________________________________________________________

[1:19:25] Sahara
I just loved that conversation. It’s one of my favorite things, to just talk about all of these different layers and nuances, especially on a spiritual journey, and where we’re all heading as a planet.

[1:19:38] Sahara
And what I loved about James’ perspective is, it really was not fear-based at all. Sometimes I can find myself, even being really afraid that things are getting really technological and having that fear of the ways that things can all go wrong, which, again, if you’ve watched The Matrix or any movies like that, rightfully so. And I’m really grateful for technology because that’s how I’m connecting with you all, and that’s how James and I connected and that’s how I’ve been exposed to so many beautiful people and thought leaders and artists, and so much more. So, it’s a mixed bag like everything in life and it really is what we take from it.

[1:20:16] Sahara
And what I loved that Sadhguru recently said on the Podcast I did with him, which I highly recommend listening to because we also talk about the merging of spirituality and technology, but he really shares that so many of the things that we used to say are only available for the Gods; being able to talk to someone around the world; telepathy; is available for us now through Zoom, through technology, through texting someone. And sometimes it’s so easy to take these innovations for granted, and like James said, to think that “Oh, well, technology is okay up to this point, but moving forward it’s evil” and again, I still have my suspicions, I still don’t want to get on the Metaverse, I still believe human connection is more needed than anything else, I still want to live in community with earth, and I do honor and recognize the ways that technology has radically improved our lives and given us more time to have conversations like this that we’re not working in a factory all the time or working in a farmland, or having to be worried about our survival on a daily basis, thanks to technology.

[1:21:21] Sahara
And I think the trick is to not to lose our humanity in that and create these completely optimized lives that don’t really have meaning and value.
So, this is a conversation to keep having because it’s really the direction that we’re all heading in and it’s important to really look at it and talk about it, and not give into any forms of expectations, whether they’re fear-based or utopian, but to rather have an open perspective and see that all is possible.

[1:21:47] Sahara
So, thank you so much James for being on. Be sure to check out his new book, I have his website linked in the show notes, and I’m so grateful for you all to be here.

[1:21:55]
If you loved this Episode, I would love to send you a free gift which is the first half of my unreleased book “Eat Right for Your Mind-Body Type”. This is a different book than “Eat Feel Fresh“. My first book ever which is not released anywhere, and I am gifting it exclusively to those who leave a review of my Podcast in the iTunes store. So, all you’ve got to do is head over to iTunes where you’re maybe listening to this Podcast and leave a review, take a screenshot that you’ve left it and email it over to me at [email protected] and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book “Eat Right for Your Mind Body Type“, which goes all into Ayurveda, Doshas, Plant-Based Nutrition, Body Types – all of the things in a really fun and engaging way. So, this is my gift to you for free for supporting the Podcast. Every single review I personally read. It really helps the Podcast be listened to by more people so we can raise the vibration of the planet together, and I am soul grateful to have you on this journey.

Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you on the next Episode. Namaste.

Episode 405: The Future of Spirituality + Technology in a Social Media World with James
McCrae
By Sahara Rose