Altered states of consciousness are going mainstream. This episode is a deep dive on the startup ecosystem with my friend Greg Kubin who an investor a Psymed Ventures. We recorded this conversation as a followup to a longer post covering the startup ecosystem related to expanding human consciousness.

Startups will play a key role in enabling and expanding access to altered states of consciousness. The types of companies come in many flavors – hardware, software, and community. Technology could even result in accessing completely new states of consciousness.

But first… how do we define consciousness?

Most humans live in a state of normal waking consciousness – i.e. being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and physical surroundings. For most people, this is seemingly all there is to reality, maybe  except for dreams. In contrast, altered (or “alternative”) states of consciousness enable us to experience additional levels of awareness, perceptions, memories, thinking, emotions, sense of time, place, and self-control (source). In the process, they expand our understanding of the potentials of reality and the human experience. There are a variety of reasons people seek altered states: improved mental health, physical healing, creative breakthroughs, and spiritual connectedness. There are also risks – without proper support, altered states can be destabilizing.

“Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness” - William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

Consciousness is subjective. This means, for the most part, we only know what it feels like inside our own inner space.

So how do we move beyond our limitations if our only reference point is our subjective experience? Well, one way is to have a map of all the different potentialities available to humans and clear directives on how to experience them.

This is the subject of today’s episode with guest Trish Blain. Trish is the founder of Nonordinary and the author of The Four Forces book. She first got on my radar with her work helping previous podcast guest Alexander Beiner who she worked to navigate the extended state DMT trials.

In this conversation, I think Trish stimulates some interesting ideas around how we can move beyond our limitations and then look to embody these ecstatic states in union with others. I think one thing that resonated with me is how even amidst many people doing their inner work, more expansive states of being are often investigated and understood in isolation. This presents a challenge when we are looking to co-create more expansively. One way Trish proposes that we overcome this is the creation of a shared understanding and map of human experience. This is the crux of a lot of her work with The Four Forces framework and the Edges Map. 

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

What is happening in the world of neuroscience and meditation?

That is the subject of today’s episode with Katie Devaney who is a researcher at University of California Center for Psychedelic Research and Co-founder of Berkeley Alembic.

As an independent organization, Berkeley Alembic has more autonomy to perform research on experiences that highly experienced meditators have, yet might not match the immediate criteria of fighting disease. 

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

I went on a men’s retreat a few months ago called Junto and realized that there were some major growth opportunities for me in the outer expression of a lot of my inner work.

What this retreat made me realize is that I’ve spent less time on learning how to effectively communicate and express these experiences in many relationships in an elegant and authentic way.

Today’s guest is Andrew Horn -- the creator of the Junto retreat experience, founder of the tech company Tribute, and a leadership coach & facilitator. 

In this conversation, we talk about relational leadership and the practicalities of what that looks like in our day to day experience. A big takeaway for me is that even when we work on our consciousness, we often don’t have many tools we need to be fully expressed as humans. Andrew shares many of his favorite tools that he uses in his own life and the people we work with.

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/publish/podcasting/s/evolutionfm-podcast

The study of the DMT experience by standard only takes around 10 minutes. What if we could extend the duration of these experiences and get into a deeper exploration?

Enter DMTx. In 2018, researchers kicked off a study to observe participants in an extended DMT state experience to delve deeper and conventional limits.

Today’s guest is Alexander Beiner, one of the 9 incredibly brave participants who embarked on this pioneering inner exploration.

What did he find?

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/publish/podcasting/s/evolutionfm-podcast

We, humans, are a funny bunch. 

Sometimes it feels like we think we have it all figured out only to later understand how the way we’ve been doing things needs some rethinking.

You may have heard of the term “regenerative” in various contexts. I most often came across it in relation to agriculture. But the concept can be applied to all the systems in our society including business.

Today’s guest is Rudy De Waele, the founder of RegenerateX, UnconditionalMen, and Heart Masters. He has been working with leaders and organizations across the world to transform themselves and the systems we find ourselves in.

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/publish/podcasting/s/evolutionfm-podcast

Today’s guest is Angelo Dilullo, the creator of Simply Always Awake and author of the book Awake: It’s Your Turn.

When I’ve read about very enlightened or realized beings, I always wonder what it must feel like to experience reality through their eyes. What is the texture of the inner experience?

This was one reason I was thrilled to have Angelo on the show to get the background of his journey and understand what his current experience feels like.

Angelo does a fantastic job outlining the awakening process in the context of his story. You can check out more of his work here:

https://www.youtube.com/@SimplyAlwaysAwake

https://simplyalwaysawake.com/

I am also teaching a 5-week training program called Guided on cultivating the emergent wisdom we describe in this episode starting 5/31/23.

To learn more about the Guided 5-week intuition course, you can find full details here: https://guidedintuition.co/

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

Mark is a newer author in the consciousness space, having published 5 books in the last 4 years including An End To Upside Down Thinking which compiles the most emergent science and countless anecdotes to make the case for consciousness creating reality. 

In this conversation, we touch upon Mark’s journey which shares many overlaps with my own. We both got to a deep passion for exploring consciousness from what sometimes feels like the most unlikely of places: being student-athletes at Princeton University.

I am also teaching a 5-week training program called Guided on cultivating the emergent wisdom we describe in this episode starting 5/31.

To learn more about the Guided 5-week intuition course, you can find full details here: https://guidedintuition.co/

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast

There have been many big shifts in my life over the past 5 years.

Without a doubt, one of the biggest ones has been moving away from a militant allegiance towards logic and reason, into a more inclusive paradigm that incorporates and prioritizes intuition.

In this conversation, we touch on a lot of this literature, historical examples, and how intuition emerges. One thing that is very congruent with my own experience that Theresa touches upon is how self-awareness and inner healing go hand in hand with the emergence of intuition.

I am also teaching a 5-week training program called Guided on cultivating the emergent wisdom we describe in this episode starting 5/31.

To learn more about the Guided 5-week intuition course, you can find full details here: https://guidedintuition.co/

For full show notes, visit: https://scottbritton.substack.com/p/accessing-our-innate-intuitive-gifts?sd=pf

Life is a series of transitions.

This truth is something I’ve increasingly realized on my consciousness journey. I once thought there was a destination to get to. At first, this was becoming a wildly successful entrepreneur and then an enlightened being. I now see that there are no endpoints and that the process of evolution is one that continues to infinity. Inherently, this means we will need to continuously reinvent ourselves and I believe this is something we can learn to do with greater skill and ease.

This reality is one reason I was excited to have a conversation with my good buddy Schlaf, the transition coach and the brains behind Where the Road Bends. Steve and I got to know each other as “hustlers” in the early days of the New York Tech scene. If there was anyone who was out there buying more coffee and trying to rub elbows with the right people more than me back in the day, it might have been Steve!

For full show notes, https://scottbritton.substack.com/s/evolutionfm-podcast