0:00
you know what is it like for us to have it all and what is the question what is it all and I’m starting to really
0:05
appreciate the possibility that we can have vital health beautiful nourishing
0:10
relationships we can have a level of affluence where we’re sufficiently supported and we don’t need goldplated
0:16
rolls-royces and we don’t need endless wardrobes we just need sufficient affluence that means we’re comfortable secure and safe um and to be surrounded
0:25
by lots of beauty and nature um and just having um you know the the the beautiful
0:33
Comforts of life that where life is simple but life is joyful and life is filled with wonderful um experiences so
0:42
I think for me that’s what a well lived life is where we’re connected not only to other humans and rest of the planet but also to Spirit and source and God as
0:48
well
0:55
[Music]
1:06
I’d like to welcome to the journeying soul Tom Cronin hi Helen how are you doing Tom
1:12
I’m great it’s Sunday morning I’ve just been for a long walk um yeah I feel refreshed and I’m teaching meditation um
1:19
after this session today so I’ll be uh heading off to my studio to Enlighten
1:24
some people okay well before we um speak about the portal yeah let’s
1:32
talk about 1996 which was like a big year for you from what I understand you were working in bonds you were trading
1:39
bonds you’re a big bonds guy yeah and I’m trying staring sorry I’m just I’m just trying to think like in Wolf of
1:45
Wall Street are you Matthew MCC Leonardo DiCaprio or Jonah
1:51
Hill that’s a good question uh probably more Leonardo DiCaprio okay at that
1:57
point I’d been in my career as a broker for uh 10 years I started in
2:03
1987 and it had been a culmination of time where I had been building uh a
2:11
particular lifestyle of lots of partying drinking late nights hard hard work and
2:18
this buildup over time had gotten to the point where slowly was just showing me signals that this lifestyle was
2:25
unsustainable and it was not appropriate and how old were you may I ask you how old were you
2:30
yeah in 1996 I was 28 29 oh okay so I started my career at 19h and I was
2:38
getting sort of anxiety I was getting insomnia I was getting uh these waves of sort of panic which I didn’t understand
2:43
were panic attacks I didn’t know what it meant I just was incapacitated in the cubicle at work unable to breathe and
2:50
it’s kind of built up and built up and I just kept doing the same thing late nights drinking drugs parting working hard and then in 1996 it kind of blew up
2:58
into really what was diagnosed by the doctors is a full-blown nervous breakdown where I was experiencing agrob
3:06
couldn’t go to work had take mental healthly uh was in a really dark dark
3:11
place and yeah I was really questioning whether I could or wanted to go on with
3:16
life and that was the time where I came across meditation and that was a big
3:24
turning point for me 1996 where that the crisis the darkness of that experience
3:29
compelled me to look for Alternatives I was seeing doctors and psychiatrists and psychologists put on medication but it
3:36
kind of felt even more crippling for me uh I felt really disempowered not to credit that pathway
3:43
for anyone who might be going down that pathway but for me that dependency and that loss of sovereignty um really felt
3:52
like it just wasn’t the pathway for me and that’s when meditation divinely was
3:57
put in front of me and it was a game changer for me that really changed things in a big way you must have felt
4:02
too that the doctors that were trying to help you were basically switching like one set of drugs that you’ve been using recreationally for another set so just
4:11
didn’t feel like a solution it felt like a band it really did feel like it’s like surely there’s got to be more than you
4:17
just one psychiatrist even said that you know kind of almost intimated that I
4:22
would have to be using these for the rest of my life and that was really debilitating to hear that yeah yeah I
4:28
would imagine so especially yeah I mean and I have to tell you I had a an episode not not exactly like yours
4:36
I was never really I was I I I don’t really even though I was always around people who drank a lot and did a lot of
4:42
drugs it just was never for me so I never I I didn’t it was never a problem for me but I did have um issues around
4:49
28 29 30 that led to a like physical collapse right after my 30th birthday
4:55
and I started having around the time at 28 that you were having your issues I was having panic attacks
5:00
which you know when you wind up in the emergency room with that I’m guessing you have a sense of what that’s like and
5:06
they don’t really know what to do for you and meditation I wind up going a different route because mine became very
5:12
physical um but something to you need to do something to intervene to reset your
5:18
whole nervous system which obviously meditation can do so who how did how did you get turned onto meditation like who
5:25
who were you first in contact with where did you go um yeah obviously at that point 1996 you know
5:32
this is before we had apps and meditation was a bit of a household phenomenon it was quite still unheard of
5:37
and not really discussed in the community surprisingly and the doctors
5:43
psychiatrist psychologists none of them have mentioned anything as far as that I was just like take these this is what’s
5:48
going to solve your problem uh and so I was at home I had agobia which was the inability really to leave the house and
5:54
I could go out every now and then but you know the idea of going on a bus and to work it was it’s a strange thing
5:59
agobia um where it’s such a daunting Prospect to go into the world um so I was spending a lot of time at home I was
6:05
on Mental Health leave from work and I was watching TV so this was 1996 for all the young kids they can’t imagine what
6:11
life would be like without um you know the um internet and YouTube and Netflix
6:18
and things so I was watching frw TV and there was a documentary it was actually on 60 Minutes it was about a big
6:23
property developer here in Australia and they were just talking about his success um but there was a small Slither of that
6:29
story that he talked about how he used meditation and he actually said the word Transcendental Meditation now I’ve never
6:35
heard of Transcendental Meditation but this this idea of transcending because I was really into getting out of
6:42
it but they showed him while he was talking about this in a chair meditating but in a suit so not on a floor not
6:49
Lotus and um you know not in robes but I will suits and I sat in chair so it was
6:55
a really appealing proposition and it looked so peaceful so what I did was for all the young kids again I did something
7:01
very strange I picked up the yellow Page’s book that was holding the front door open from blowing in the yeah
7:07
that’s what young people these days would call Google and so I looked up M for meditation and I I remember seeing
7:13
in bright red in in alular Pages here in Australia you could highlight your business name um in bright red or bold
7:19
black and this was in bright red Torance and Dena meditation so I I went to a lot of the meditation centers in the Yellow
7:26
Pages um to research different techniques there was chakra clearing and some really out there stuff that I
7:33
didn’t really resonate with but I really love the science and simplicity of TM how was that though I mean how did you
7:39
at this point I’m thinking you still have agoraphobia and you’re now having to go visit places you must have been
7:45
pretty determined yeah the first thing was to call them and um the interesting
7:50
with with Transcendental Meditation I I said to them um you know I just want to learn I ranged him up and said I saw a
7:57
guy on TV and I want to learn they said well you have to come in and do an intro talk and so that was really quite
8:02
challenging for me you know but I was determined to find out more and it wasn’t like I couldn’t completely leave the house I could still do things but it
8:10
was a preference not to um and so going to Meditation Center seemed like it was a fairly safe bet and um yeah when I sat
8:19
through that intro talk and the teacher was talking about outcome oriented fulfillment versus self-referred fulfillment and the science and the
8:24
biology the brain and biochemicals and everything was just like Penny dropping penny dropping Penny dropping and I
8:31
remember driving home that night going this is I I felt this incredible sense
8:36
of hope and excitement and I was like this is what I’ve been waiting for all my life this is what I’ve been looking
8:42
for and it was when I learned the course it was it really was a game changer within days and weeks all of the
8:49
anomalies had simply melted away predominantly most of them anyway and just going back to what you said about
8:54
the physiology the thing with these deeper meditations particularly Bic meditations TM is that it is a
9:01
physiological practice and the way we’re getting to the physiology is to actually
9:06
put it into deep rest and the way we put the physiology into deep rest so that it can heal itself is by quetting the mind
9:12
and it’s been found that when the mind is awake and not thinking it’s four
9:18
times physiologically deeper levels of rest than when we’re asleep and not thinking so it was phenomenally
9:25
physiological emotional mental and um down the track eventually spirit as
9:31
well how was um what was your support system like at that time in terms of
9:37
family yeah I have had a partner and still have a partner same my my wife uh today she was with me um and she was
9:45
wonderful and very caring and um very supportive and always has been um a lot of this particularly for guys is a very
9:52
solitary experience um even my wife didn’t know much about the struggles and
9:57
the pains that I was going through you know as a cliched man alpha male man you
10:04
know the last thing we want to do is let people in our life know that we’re we’re not coping you know when we’re supposed
10:11
to be the one that’s coping and so this is partly the problem why men commit suicide you know six times more than
10:17
women because of that inability to open up and be vulnerable and share that and I was a classic cliche in that space um
10:25
unfortunately and I think the world’s getting better now hopefully that then start to open up a little bit more about those vulnerabilities but um not many
10:32
people and I just didn’t really want to discuss it with many people either yeah I I would I would just agree
10:39
with you too I do a lot of um a lot of interviews and a lot of work on the on
10:44
Grief recovery and dealing with grief and that’s another area that men are still feeling the need to bottle it up I
10:51
suppose you know especially since when losses happen it’s it usually starts with this experience of something being
10:58
done to you you know that’s something you couldn’t control and any lots of
11:03
work we have to do we’ve got plenty of work to do yeah it keeps us keeps us out of trouble yeah so anyway now let’s just
11:11
talk about so what is the portal so I was obviously quite
11:18
transformed through meditation it was a incredible game Cher for me really turned my life around and um I’d seen
11:26
the secret and the secret I thought was pH Al for me at the time that that
11:31
managed to make a film about a very esoteric subject matter the law of attraction that what you think you can attract was kind of quite absurd to you
11:38
know think that you could get that into the households of the world in such a massive way but they did a great job of
11:44
that and and I got really inspired because uh I thought well if they can do that with the law of attraction then I could do that with meditation and so the
11:51
idea was to showcase the power of meditation in transforming individuals
11:57
through and out of crisis and that crisis is a a catalyst for change not something that we’re punished
12:04
with or something we’re a victim to but an opportunity so rather being a liability it’s an asset if we have the
12:11
capacity to utilize that experience as uh an Impulse to change and grow and
12:18
evolve and so I wanted to make a film that showcased meditation in the face of
12:24
crisis in the experience of Crisis and how it can change people’s lives and so we decided to make a film and book about
12:30
that and we researched over 300 different stories around the world they added three main components in the story
12:36
we wanted the story to have a a crisis in it secondly that they used the tool
12:42
of meditation because people can use many different tools to get out of Crisis it could be Chong it could be breath work it could be plan medicine it
12:49
could be therapy it could be all sorts of different modalities but for us we wanted to focus on meditation so first
12:55
one crisis second one meditation the third one we wanted Global themes cuz we were um embedding the stories into a
13:03
macro perspective of Humanity’s crisis or impending crisis we’re kind of in the in the early stages of that crisis now
13:11
uh and so the the global themes that lead to Humanities crisis were um AI
13:18
environmental um and War the main three uh there’s about three or four others as
13:23
well having talked to a lot of people that specialize in humanties
13:28
exist potential crisis and there’s some large organizations and bodies that are doing a lot of research into this um so
13:34
we do have a few things that are you know I guess we’re facing as potential
13:40
challenges for Humanity as a species on the planet and um so we wanted those themes to be integrated into the actual
13:47
personal story so that’s where we got the six stories eventually down to yeah I think when I read the book and
13:54
watched the film Tom now I know you’re meditating but my first take was gosh
14:00
this guy must be ripping his hair out looking at the state of the world but obviously you’re meditating so hopefully
14:06
not you’re bringing that down but what are you trying to tell the world with
14:12
this project or invied the world to do maybe
14:17
yeah the first part is Awakening or realization and then the second part is action so in the viic tradition there’s
14:25
uh it recognizes three forces of evolution evolution is not a straight line there are three forces that play
14:32
out and this is in relationships in your own individual life in businesses in um
14:38
in civilizations itself and these street forces in Sanskrit they’re called Brahma Vishnu and Shiva and in English it’s
14:46
called creation maintenance and destruction and these three forces actually work together um to create the
14:53
evolutionary process that things are continually evolving and growing and what what happens is that um sometimes
15:00
we get stuck in maintenance which is we we just keep doing the same thing over and over again but because that’s
15:06
impossible to actually sustain because of evolution then Shiva the destructive operator needs to come in and remove the
15:12
obstacle that’s causing the maintenance of that particular status quo and so um
15:18
what we want is creation which is Brahma and that’s where we’re continually evolving growing and adapting even
15:24
Einstein I think it was that said the strongest of the species that survives is the one that’s the most adapt able
15:30
and so what what I see in the world is the maintenance of a particular level of
15:36
Consciousness and a particular status quo in the way we actually live and breathe our life that is consumption
15:42
based extraction model economics um and living that is that my fulfillment is
15:48
derived from extraction of things in my life that is if I can buy something or
15:53
experience something then that will trigger me to feel happier um which is what we’re conditioned to actually live
15:59
can breathe Our Lives by um every Netflix TV show um every TV commercial
16:05
um Society itself indoctrinates us with good things will make you feel good bad things will make you feel bad if you buy
16:11
things you’ll feel good if you experience things you’ll feel good and so we’re in this constant um acquisition
16:17
mode and experience mode to try and find fulfillment and the um the ignoring of
16:23
where fulfillment actually lies which is within us and so the principles of evolution are that it will cause cause
16:29
destruction and pain and suffering as a catalyst for changing that particular maintenance for changing that status quo
16:36
and every relationship needs to keep evolving every business needs to keep evolving every civilization needs to keep evolving but if we stay stuck in a
16:43
particular Paradigm we’ll attract huge amounts of chaos and destruction and turmoil and that’s really just a
16:49
catalyst for change by the laws of evolution and the intelligence that lies within the the field and so what I could
16:55
see is that we for the last 10,000 years plus have lived in that extraction and commoditization mode and what we’re
17:02
getting to now is that the rampant um process of that exponentially ramping up
17:10
you know if you look at all countries around the world now we’re in extreme um
17:15
consumption mode and our economic model is built on the idea that we have to keep consuming to keep the economic
17:21
model working and yeah and also the economic models all demand growth they can’t find balance they all have so yeah
17:29
yeah and it’s just and and we simply cannot keep going at that rate it’s completely unsustainable that is moving
17:36
us towards on many levels um a place of catastrophe and some people will say
17:42
we’re already past that Tipping Point now yeah um but you seem to feel and I
17:47
may be wrong about this you seem to feel comfortable in a way with the spot we’re in because you understand it as part of
17:53
the cycle it’s part of the process yeah absolutely um there’s only Evolution so
17:58
if if if Humanity um seems to be the impediment to Greater Harmony and
18:05
thriving on the planet then what we see with Shiva the destructive operators the
18:11
removal of obstacles if the river is blocked and it needs to flow at some point the force will be so Gant and it
18:16
will remove the block um or the river stops so this is always the case is that
18:22
the the outcomes are always good um so it would be better for the planet um if
18:27
we evolve and we grow and learn and adapt and we become much more aware of
18:33
our um our place in the world and um and how we become more aware of our true
18:39
nature if you look at enlightened people which are highly evolved humans we see
18:44
that their consumption model is is bare minimum because the idea of going to a shopping mall and buying three bags of
18:50
clothes that they might wear three times in their life to get more fulfilled because they had a shitty week um it’s
18:57
just Madness um and so not that I’m completely um you know in a cave and
19:02
enlightened I also have my you know I wear a nice shirt and I live in a house that has things so I’m part of the
19:09
process as well part of the problem there’s no question I I can see that I contribute to that problem as well um
19:14
but we do need to change the way our level of awareness that’s the main thing that needs to happen I see meditation
19:20
plays an integral role in that as we start to cultivate more blissfulness within ourselves we have less dependency
19:26
on it outside of ourselves I think the the trick though in what
19:33
you’re doing and with also what I’m trying to do I think in the and so many of the other people I speak to is
19:40
that it a crisis seems to be needed it’s hard I think it’s difficult to get
19:46
people to and I’m going to say be enlightened with the small e enlightened with the small e we just because I mean
19:52
I feel in some ways I’m enlightened you know when I had had traumas and difficulties it’s taken me a step
19:58
further but one little step um but it’s hard to do
20:03
that without a a crisis coming to people I mean you even said when you pick the subjects for the film that was almost a
20:10
prerequisite they had to have that moment where they could then move into um a meditation practice how how do you
20:18
how do you Enlighten people without sort of traumatizing them first yeah yeah
20:25
it’s a it’s a really good point do we need crisis to adapt to evolve and grow more often than not we do because um we
20:33
tend to be very resistant to change even Tim Farah said that we will choose
20:38
unhappiness over change uh and that’s exactly how I was you know for many years people were saying to me you know
20:43
you should you need to do something and some people that even been telling me I should meditate but I just couldn’t you know listen to anyone I just kept doing
20:50
the same thing over and over again and that’s part of the problem we’re very calcified and rigid in the way we live
20:57
our lives it’s very hard for us to adapt and change until we start using tools that enable us greater adaptive capacity
21:04
so meditation increases our adaptive capacity and we’re in a world now where we actually need increased adaptive
21:11
capacity but we’re showing greater resistance to adapting which is causing greater and greater levels of stress
21:17
because our need for adaptive capacity and our ability to be adaptive is the gaps widening um and so you know how
21:24
many times do you get an update on your phone um that you have to press and you’re like oh my gosh here we go
21:29
everything’s going to change again I’ve got to hit that update and um and it’s happening faster and faster so our need
21:35
for adaptive capacity is increasing but we’re we’re we’re not and so that’s that leads to a particular breaking point of
21:42
crisis at some point as a catalyst for change we can adapt without crisis there’s no question about it and as we
21:49
get more and more conscious we start to find that our adaptive capacity starts to increase more and more and we find
21:56
that we’re much more in tune to the requirement for change before the
22:02
requirement for change happens my dad was a sailor and he used to teach me when he’ Take Me Out sailing to look on
22:10
the horizon on the water and he would show me where the the wind was changing before we got to that
22:17
particular point and he said so we’re going to start preparing for the TAC once we hit that Squall because I can
22:24
see that the water is already changing um because the winds already changed ahead and so the the preemptive shift we
22:32
can make before the requirement for crisis to come into our life is how we live much more harmonious lives and
22:38
that’s this constant adapting and tacking tacking and weaving like an aido move through life sensing okay I get
22:45
what you’re saying Universe before it becomes crisis and I’m going to adapt to make that shift happen so we can live
22:51
very harmonious lives we can live very peaceful lives it’s just that um if we’re quite rigid and calcified and not
22:59
La uh not adaptive then crisis will usually come in to cause some sort of shake up and some of it is actually um
23:07
you know our neurobiology just in terms of neural networks and neural connections um it’s it’s enjoyment of
23:14
the familiar and not and not that it doesn’t tag new information in a certain way but
23:23
that is part of the the issue but that’s a beautiful um metaphor I’m sure you use it with people by keeping their on the
23:29
horizon and adapting there that’s that’s wonderful um
23:35
so when you and I spoke briefly a few days ago um you just mentioned and we didn’t
23:42
get into it what do you think is going on in the collective unconscious we were
23:47
talking about two different archetypes maybe playing or more you have an
23:54
opinion the collective unconscious yeah we have a an epidemic of
24:01
distraction which is increasing which is a natural
24:06
inclination to seek pleasure and so we have that in our phones in our streaming
24:12
Platforms in the ability to order food to our front door without having to leave the house with Uber Eats um and
24:18
this is all satiating um immediate desires that craving for dopamine and
24:25
this is causing us to become more and more disconnected connected to the very core of our being and so the Gap is
24:33
widening to our constant craving outside of ourselves for more dopamine more
24:39
pleasure and the um the the widening from our our natural inclination to go
24:45
Inward and sit in presence and in and connect to the heart and connect to the soul connect to presence and uh again
24:54
that’s just if that’s what we have to go through to create a catalyst for crisis which will be a catalyst for change
24:59
which will be a catalyst for looking within and we tend to find like probably was with you as it was with me when we
25:06
exhaust the ability to find fulfillment outside of ourselves many many times I find people coming to me going I’m
25:13
miserable I’m unhappy I’m I I I’m lost I feel lonely um how do I get out of this
25:20
it’s like okay it’s time for you to start going Inward and I had a call from
25:26
uh someone had reached out to to me from the alaly coast in Italy and they’d got my details from
25:33
someone and he’ sold his business in Australia for $350 million to a large
25:39
organization and it was an absolute jackpot as far as everything you could
25:44
possibly want in life he he ended up buying a palace on the Amalfi Coast in Italy had a beautiful wife and beautiful
25:50
children uh two children and they were living in this incredible Palace on the malf coast in Italy with his family
25:57
every box was picked and he’ contacted me in the most depressed anxious State
26:05
he he was so lost and so unhappy he said I don’t understand i’ I’ve done everything that I was meant to do to get
26:11
fulfillment and I’m just so miserable I don’t know why I can’t explain it and it was a really wonderful process for him
26:18
to go through because it was time for him to start looking for the true source of fulfillment that was with inside himself and he was an incredible student
26:25
because of his um capacity to to understand the process and and then turn his Direction inward so I think um there
26:34
is a crisis in the collective unconsciousness that is is looming and
26:39
um I think that’s going to be a huge Catalyst for a huge Awakening so I live with a great sense of hope and
26:46
excitement about what lies ahead because I see the closer and closer we get to crisis I see the closer and closer we
26:52
get to Awakening and in Sanskrit there’s a a saying sat Yuga which is the Age of
26:58
Enlightenment and we’re we’re not far I’d think personally anyway some say we’re tens thousands of years or
27:03
hundreds of thousands of years off it but I think we’re probably much closer than we think I would agree with you
27:09
just because um of climate you know I can’t go on this way or we will be greatly greatly
27:17
greatly greatly reduced in numbers pretty quickly so but an interesting story you um had in your film I spoke a
27:24
couple weeks with Jim Dodie and you had Jim Dodie in your film um the story you’re telling of the your
27:32
this man from the emaly coast is kind of like a Jim Dodie story where he was riding on the private jet had all the
27:38
houses uh was dating beautiful women and was that total Rock
27:44
Bottom that that moment of having everything and being completely empty at the same time
27:50
so yeah um but the the thing I often wonder about um in this area also though
28:00
is when we’re talking about Enlightenment um I’m more familiar with the story of
28:08
people who have okay had a crisis and it brought them along or they’ve
28:14
accumulated everything they could want like the man you just described like Jim
28:20
Dodie where do we how how do you Outreach where do people who are struggling fit in like I I just can’t
28:27
help but think when you’re dealing with the demands of of having a physical life
28:33
and just trying to get food Fire Water Shelter air you know and you’re working multiple jobs there’s no time to
28:39
meditate there’s no and and it and it can breed such um frustration in a way because I I feel
28:48
that when you’re really struggling with survival issues um I mean it does take
28:54
away from the opportunity to enjoy being alive sometimes I’m not saying there
29:01
aren’t people who don’t work and aren’t happy workers I mean we’ve all heard I’ve had people in my family who worked
29:07
very hard in physical jobs and they were happier than other people in the family but there there is a problem of
29:15
just I mean poverty and and and um enlightening
29:20
those people like giving having them have opportunities for enlightenment yeah what do you do yeah
29:26
it’s yeah it’s a definitely you know everyone everyone needs to have access
29:32
to the tools to um enliven and um enhance their life if we if we look at
29:39
maso’s hierarchy of needs it’s it’s exactly what you said you know that base level of need needs to be met first if
29:44
if you look at his last need which is self-actualization let’s just call that enlightment and so he says that there’s
29:50
a there’s a pecking order of of needs that need to be met um and we tend to
29:55
prioritize them in that order which is the Bas one is I need food and shelter like that must be number one and then we
30:02
move up I need connection I need this I need personal growth and so we go through these particular needs and then
30:07
eventually we put last self-actualization now um it could be a
30:14
little bit controversial but it could also be suggested that we need to flip maso’s
30:20
hierarchy and if we prioritize self-actualization or self-realization or
30:25
Enlightenment then what we tend to find is your capacity for all those other
30:30
needs increases and gets met in a much easier way mhm
30:38
um it’s what comes first the chicken or the egg you know do we do we get self-actualized and then start making
30:43
money but how do I get S actualized when I’m just trying to pay my mortgage or pay my rent and turn up to work every
30:48
day so I get that dilemma and that challenge um the I grappled with the
30:54
idea when I came across the idea of meditating and learning to meditate that I had to put aside time every day
31:00
I’m like hey dude seriously I’m a busy broker I don’t have time to meditate but I did after the course realized the
31:06
science behind it and I did understand also the mechanics of fulfillment
31:12
searching and that everyone in their time in their day um is allocating every
31:17
action to the quest to find fulfillment and that’s whether we’re working because we can pay our rent or whether we’re going to the basketball to shoot some
31:23
hoops or whether we’re going to watch Netflix or the gym it’s all quest to find fulfillment and yet um most of us
31:30
are deeply unfulfilled so we need to just slightly shift in some way shape or form our time allocation because for
31:37
most of us our time allocation to finding fulfillment isn’t actually working out for us very well and when a teacher told me two sessions a day 20
31:44
minutes ideally would be a paradigm shift for you I looked at my day and realized that my day comprised of 24
31:50
hours and each hour has three portions of 20 minutes which means there 72 20-minute pieces of P that I’m trying to
31:56
find fulfillment from and you was contemplating whether I wanted to live my life so I needed to change that and
32:01
he suggested taking two out of 72 pieces of pie making them
32:06
unconditional for sitting and closing my eyes repeating a strange primordial vibrational Mantra and that will
32:13
significant change my other 70 20 minute pieces of high and this is what we need
32:18
to start doing in the world we need to start understanding that self-referred fulfillment one that arises from within
32:24
that we allocate some portion of time towards achieving each day is absolutely
32:30
critical for the other portions of the day um because when we have
32:36
self-referred fulfillment we have action from fulfillment not action for fulfillment and action from fulfillment
32:43
whether it’s going to work your relationships your sport your gym um Your Entertainment everything about your
32:50
day when it’s stabilized in fulfillment is completely different than
32:55
coming from a place of lack and going into action to try and extract fulfillment and as a saying in Sanskrit
33:02
yog established in being perform action and being itself is fulfillment so let’s
33:08
establish the arising of bliss within the arising of Love within the the the the realization of your true nature
33:15
first and then see how that changes the quality of your life and um I’m a big
33:22
believer that if we flip masa’s hierarchy we’ll find that all the other
33:27
layers will start to look after themselves a whole lot better does this hierarchy um have any correspondence or
33:33
can you make one between like the chakras you know with our first chakras is often about survival and obviously
33:40
our seven think cor okay I never really thought of it until you just said that but I think there’s definitely a
33:46
correlation there for sure yeah because uh yeah there’s a lot of um there are a
33:52
lot of things you mentioned the secret there are a lot of things in the manifestation world where you know it it does start with it does try to flip the
33:59
Paradigm of of get into I think in they they call it the vortex you know you’re
34:04
using like the Stillness and the joy like joy and coming from the heart is very important to actually manifest
34:11
things in the physical world so um yes I like everything works together
34:18
I’m starting to we’re starting as a species to realize that it’s not as much
34:24
what you do that’s important it’s what state you’re in while you do what you do give the energy because yeah because
34:31
we’re starting to really it’s taken us a while to work this out but there is a mechanics of the law of magnetism and
34:36
Law of Attraction this is not some woo woo stuff anymore there’s almost like a science behind it Jonas spenzer does a
34:42
lot of work around this um and we’re starting to do a lot more work around this as well particularly on our Retreats where we’ve got to change our
34:49
state first because um waiting for the world to work out for us to change our
34:55
state and then understanding the of Attraction means that if you’re not in the right state for that thing to happen
35:02
anyway then it’s going to keep moving away from you or being repelled by you um which means you’re in a constant
35:07
state of chasing and lack so we have to change our state first and then what we tend to find is people choose better
35:13
career paths people start attracting more affluence people start attracting more um successful relationships people
35:19
start having Better Health start being less dependent on the system and um it’s
35:25
it’s a challenge because most people just trying to like you said keep the head above water or you know just keep the the wheel turning but we need to
35:33
support Humanity in realizing the the quality and the richness of who they are inside themselves um first and
35:42
foremost um I’m
35:48
guessing well maybe I’m not guessing do you feel that everyone
35:54
is connected like in a I mean obviously we
36:00
all come from the same Source we’re all little pieces of the same Source yes at a Quantum level at a level
36:09
absolutely yeah you know we we now have ancient Mystics that have been saying
36:14
something for 5,000 years and quantum physics coming together and there being
36:20
an agreement yes that’s true what you’ve been saying for 5,000 years in ancient
36:26
texts and Word of Mouth passing down through ancient philosophies is being validated at a Quantum level at a
36:33
scientific level that there you know we talk about String Theory or unified field Theory um that where we’re
36:40
discovering at a subtler and subtler level nothing is solid nothing is um actually really physical and everything
36:48
is part of a unified um field of intelligence and once we start to
36:53
transcend the experience and the notion of our individualized segregated
36:59
separated self and transcend that and start to experience more of a unified
37:04
experience which is why the transcending meditations are so important because it gives you direct experience into that
37:10
unified field and that’s when you start to feel a deep sense of compassion and
37:16
connection with other because you experience yourself as other in that Unity
37:23
Consciousness yes I was thinking um of the holographic principle in particular I just because that’s we’re in a
37:29
three-dimensional world that may be projected from a two-dimensional world that may go back to one still point
37:37
so we’re definitely all connected there um oh I did want to ask you kind of a
37:43
film making question um so how did you pick how did you find your subjects for
37:49
the film because you have such a variety of of of subjects you know you’ve got a
37:55
rabbi who’s had a stroke and seems to be in a very joyful place you have a soldier who has PTSD or had PTSD was
38:02
dealing with it all and a woman who was a runner but had her career derailed and
38:09
I’m and and not to mention as you said the people working in AI how did that come we had a great
38:16
research team and we like I said you know we we kept through number of different things Google obviously being
38:22
one of them and contacts and referrals and going down rabbit holes but talking
38:27
to organizations that were working with people uh and 40 Years of Zen was one organization which is where we found
38:33
Heather and someone had let us to doie and um we talked to the TM organization which is where we found Buddha and so we
38:41
found 300 stories firstly and we sort of categorize them into what sort of Crisis
38:46
to where they come under is it war or is it AI or is it human displacement or is it um economics and things like that and
38:53
then we started looking at their demographics because we really wanted a cross-section of society
38:58
so obviously Z being Vietnamese and Buddha being African-American and um we
39:03
had Heather we had amandine being French and so we really wanted a a brad broad spectrum of society and so there was a
39:10
number of different things we were looking for to get those particular stories um chosen a lot of people asked
39:17
us why we didn’t have any Australians in it when we’re an Australian production team and we did introdu um meet a few
39:23
Australians and we did interview a few Australians but um interestingly when um
39:29
Australians are are less open and transparent we’re very reserved and um
39:34
quite closed off so getting them to really open up was a little bit more challenging than say the Americans um
39:40
they’re a lot more transparent and open when it comes to expressing their feelings think it must be all that therapy you all do over
39:48
there yeah we like to talk about our stuff and I agree that’s what this podcast is about and even as the hostess
39:55
I talk about my stuff
40:01
so yeah I don’t know where to go with that one Tom [Music]
40:08
so H well the funny thing is is I’m trying to get you to talk about your stuff and I am hitting that wall of like
40:13
I want the real the real dirt about 1996 and you gave me a nice story but you know but I have to respect it because it
40:21
is you are Australian and you are you you know not everybody wants to spill it but yeah here we do so here’s all our
40:29
stuff um all right I’m going to go to I guess my final round of questions that I
40:35
ask all my guests my lightning round if you’re okay with that it’s wrong I’m
40:40
nervous but I’m good no just everyone survives don’t
40:46
worry we’ve got existential crisis but I’m more concerned about these questions okay
40:53
exactly um so what does a well-lived life look like to you
40:58
that’s such a good question and it’s something I’m only just starting to contemplate you know what is it like for us to have it all and what is the
41:04
question what is it all and I’m starting to really appreciate the possibility that we can have vital Health beautiful
41:12
nourishing relationships we can have a level of affluence where we’re sufficiently supported and we don’t need
41:18
goldplated rolls-royces and we don’t need endless wardrobes we just need sufficient affluence that means we’re comfortable secure and safe um and to be
41:27
surrounded by lots of beauty and nature uh for me that’s a really important thing that I’m spending a lot of time and you’ll see on my Instagram quite
41:33
often I’m beautiful beaches and parks and trees and I really love being around nature and I think we should all spend
41:40
more time in nature um and just having um you know the the beautiful Comforts
41:48
of life that where life is simple but life is joyful and life is filled with
41:53
wonderful um experiences so I think for me that’s what world live life is where we’re connected not only to other humans
41:59
and rest of the planet but also to Spirit and source and God as well what do you suspect is the true
42:05
nature of reality it’s all reality everything is
42:10
reality um it’s just degrees of what we aware of it so a lizard’s reality is a lizard’s reality but it doesn’t have a
42:18
deep experience of emotional fluctuations or even a sense of itself maybe maybe it doesn’t experience a deep
42:24
connection to the Divine or God but for the lizard that’s its reality and there’s degrees to what what our
42:30
awareness of reality is but reality is everything we call it Brahman in Sanskrit which is the totality of the
42:36
Manifest and unmanifest it’s just a matter of how much we aware of the unmanifest and the
42:42
Manifest um how do you think people should take care to engage with their
42:47
Consciousness or their soul I think it’s important we sit in Stillness every day that is to close the
42:53
eyes withdraw our mind into the Silence of being and that’s not an empty just blank hole it’s actually a
43:02
blissful joyful loving radiant connection to something much much bigger
43:08
than us which is I call it the Divine some will call it God there got to be a
43:13
daily part of our experience ideally you know um as a meditation
43:18
teacher I did want to ask you what’s your um opinion about things like
43:24
binaural beats because I any sorry go no no I was just
43:30
gonna I was just gonna add that I had interviewed somebody from the Monroe Institute was R of by normal beat
43:35
started when they did the Gateway program like they they were able to take people to different states of
43:41
Consciousness very quickly so yeah I think any tool that um can help
43:47
us transcend into those Realms um there’s so many different Pathways you
43:53
know I call it the portal being an entry point into something Beyond physical mental and emotional um breath work will
44:00
do it I think there’s many different modalities plan medicine will do it bonal beats will do it mantras will do
44:06
it but we you know it’s great to go on the car map and listen to Matthew McCone read your bedtime stories but can that
44:13
give you a direct experience into Divinity and into that beautiful vast
44:19
realm beyond the thinking mind or the emotional body or the physicality of your identity so um yeah they’re all
44:26
good they play role okay and so um I’m guessing in meditation then you’ve
44:32
experience had that experience of divinity yes yeah I would absolutely
44:38
yeah it’s uh I would call it also being so it’s where there’s conscious
44:44
wakefulness with no thought and after time when we’re doing that on a regular basis in our meditation we start to
44:50
experience it predominantly outside of meditation as well so a lot of my day is being experienced in that whilst I’m
44:56
walking or sitting or sometimes even when I’m on a podcast so you know those
45:01
experiences can be prevailing for eventually for someone in an enlightened State and I’m still on
45:08
the journey there um but in a 24/7 experience whether you’re in meditation or not so it’s really the analogy I uses
45:14
it’s it’s the wave is realizing all the time that it’s the ocean right right but it does take time
45:21
to rewire your brain to be in that state a lot of practice yeah absolutely
45:27
um when you die assuming our Consciousness survives is there anything you hope to
45:33
learn yeah or find out yeah absolutely having my parents pass recently I sort
45:39
of wonder what what is on that other side of this physical Dimension and I’ve
45:44
been in touch with some mediums that communicate on the other side with souls and it seems to be a pretty
45:52
consistent feedback that um it’s pretty awesome over there yeah and
45:58
um yeah I’m I’m curious as to what what the experience will be I’m going to dig restent from my
46:05
lightning round how when did your parents um pass away was it my father
46:10
passed in February this year um which was a beautiful um transition for him
46:16
very sad for the family but we were with him when he took his last breath and that was a really loving ceremony and
46:21
process to be with him and then my mother was quite able and well uh and um
46:29
they’d been together for 62 years she was 87 he was 87 and very quickly she
46:35
just day after day kept saying that I just want to be with him and she almost
46:42
manifest departing from this world 3 months later um it’s a bit emotional um
46:48
which was uh quite a lot for the family to to go through yeah Tom that’s a lot for you to
46:55
be going through this is very for you fews ago yeah I the reason I was
47:02
asking you about that was just because um you know as I said I deal with a lot of a lot of my subject matter is grief
47:09
and as part of some of the stuff I’m discussing on this podcast I have been speaking with mediums and things like
47:15
that and people like that I should say um but also some people I mean I would say you’re you’re it’s kind of recent
47:24
but considering that you meditate and how your brain is you know I wouldn’t be
47:32
surprised if at some point you know you have that afterdeath communication for some people it’s just a dream but it’s a
47:37
dream that’s so vivid I had a I’m totally digressing now I know you got to
47:42
go to your class I’m gonna tell you my stuff because I’m an American I’m gonna pull a full American on you
47:51
brother um my sister now I my I had my first I I have had several after death
47:56
Communications but I didn’t really believe that they were because when you’re grieving I’m just I’m just rational
48:04
enough that I’m thinking all right is this real or is this just something that I want to believe is real because I’m
48:10
really sad and it would make me feel better not trusting our brains can manufacture all sorts of stuff as you
48:15
know sometimes it’s it can it can manifest the false reality of like panic
48:21
attacks and anxiety that’s not any realer than than anything but it feels so so I didn’t trust them I mean I had
48:28
one my first one was like in 1988 when my grandfather died it was like a year and a half after and I had that that
48:36
first one when my sister died my sister died she’s my only sibling she died in
48:42
2013 and I had a very a few months after she died I had a very Vivid dream people
48:47
report these things where she came to you know she gave me a hug she looked really vibrant she was standing outside
48:53
in the street in my apartment it was just and it was clearly a goodbye dream which I you know I was like that’s
48:59
comforting that’s nice um and then um a few years ago this is I’m going to say
49:04
this is five or six years ago I had a dream where um I was in the lobby of
49:10
this department store that used to be in the city it’s in Manhattan it’s no longer there at closed and I saw her
49:15
across the the very crowded Lobby and I called her and I just screamed her name and as soon as I did boom she was right
49:21
in my face and she said to me you sound terrible and in
49:28
this encounter I knew that she wasn’t talking about how I said she was talking about my thoughts because I had been
49:34
ruminating on a lot of stuff that had happened during her funeral when she died like I had a relative came and threatened me in the church it was
49:40
terrible and it was taking a toll on my health and it did take a toll on my health um but I still didn’t believe
49:47
that about two years ago I had a dream woke um it was my
49:52
father and my sister were there with an uncle of mine who had died died a month
49:57
earlier and then my Aunt Mary who as far as I knew was alive and in this dream my
50:04
Aunt Mary was doing what she does when she would ever come to our house whenever she came to our house you know
50:10
she’d bring us like old magazines and a casserole and this and that and you couldn’t do anything like you couldn’t
50:16
just greet her and get her a drink and sit her down you had to deal with all the stuff first like she would be unpacking and in this dream she was
50:24
unpacking and my Uncle George who had just the month before looked at me and said she’s all right and when I woke up
50:29
in the morning I’m like she’s dead she has crossed over she’s with all the dead family and there’s my uncle saying she’s
50:37
here and she’s okay and I said to my mother I said I think Aunt Mary died and we found out a day and a half later she
50:43
died that night that was the thing where I’m like okay so all the other experiences I had were probably I mean
50:51
they feel different so I hope you have something like that I mean I don’t know
50:56
it might be too early to go to a medium like you said you you’ve spoken to some people I don’t know but with with you I
51:04
think if and I don’t know you that well obviously we’re meeting on Zoom but with
51:10
your skills as a meditator it might just be learning a slightly different skill and a different Outreach to reestablish
51:17
those relationships in a different obviously it’ll be a different way but I’m sorry you have to go through it and
51:22
it’s very hard because um at this time you know it’s so new that grief is is
51:27
kind of raw first before it settles into something different that you can live
51:32
with I I hope um yeah you get to reestablish those relationships sooner rather than later because but I know
51:39
it’s got to be raw that’s a lot to to lose both parents it’s so close together yeah yeah it’s very Primal grape isn’t
51:46
it it’s it’s so physiological in many respects it is that’s the thing it’s
51:52
it’s a it’s a physical thing for sure because and I’m sure you’ve gone through stuff stuff where you know your mind
51:58
doesn’t work right there’s a forgetfulness there’s a whole bunch of stuff that goes on where you’re just
52:04
not it’s it’s it’s because I guess of the the Deep connection to whatever the
52:11
the quantum foam is or something you know it’s a very um it’s disruptive for sure yeah yeah yeah definitely but I I
52:18
the thing with grief that I found and that’s really helped me with that is if I always go to the subtler and subtler
52:24
and subtler and subtler sources of all things what I find there is love and so
52:31
I transmute transfer transmission grief into love because I’m
52:37
experiencing grief because of the love because of the Gratitude and so I find
52:42
that that takes me deeper into such appreciation or that person having been
52:49
in my life and and who they were as a human being and so much love for them whether they’re in physical Incarnation
52:55
or not and although there was quite and still is some um remnants obviously of
53:02
grief um but it’s inspired by love and that enhances love for me in my
53:09
life that’s lovely that’s lovely
53:15
um so now to a very almost profane question by comparison so where can
53:21
people find you and the good work that you do uh two places I think is Instagram is a great place to connect
53:28
with me I like to get messages from people and respond to all my messages so Tom Cronin in Instagram just all one
53:34
handle and then my website’s the same Tom cronincards
53:56
tour which will be Hing hopefully happening in your summer you’re brave Texas in July man
54:02
okay I heard it’s hot yeah but I like heat so hopefully the venue will be air conditioned but I’m trying to find a
54:08
midpoint we tried Boulder but we just couldn’t find the venue in Boulder so we’re looking for something in the middle of America that people on the
54:13
east and west coast could come to that’s good that’s a good idea and also um I guess enter enter the portal.com is the
54:20
portal website that’s right for the film y okay and any final messages any final
54:26
message for the listening audience well I guess maybe by the time they hear this um you would have passed through the US
54:32
election and um it’s going to be an interesting time I think for not just America but I think for the planet the
54:38
next 6 to 12 to 24 months economically
54:44
um you know with global conflict with politics I think we’re going to see some
54:51
very interesting times ahead but I think in amongst all of this inconsistency un
54:57
instability the one stable that we want to really connect with and um and be
55:03
established in is the essence of our being and to to to stabilize that to
55:09
become aware of that to experience that we do need to turn our attention inward we do need to sit in Stillness and silence in meditation so find a teacher
55:15
that will teach you find a practice that will work for you stop um just for a
55:21
short period of Time Each Day from the distraction of the world and explore the richness of what’s within and then that
55:28
stability like the roots of a tree will hold you firm when there is storm and Tempest if you look at a tree that
55:34
doesn’t have a stable root base it topples over very easily and there was a group of trees in the um the huran
55:42
Katrina the one in New Orleans um that didn’t get knocked over and they did
55:47
some research on that clump of trees and they found that an incredibly deep root base and so the deeper we go in our
55:54
connection to self with the capital S the more stable we’re going to be in a world that fluctuates and is
56:01
unstable yeah I also think just to add on to that that
56:07
um dealing with fear not letting fear run the show um is going to be very
56:15
important in the next year or two because we’re already in that spot
56:20
and it’s it’s not good when people are letting that lizard of fear out
56:27
to the degree yeah fear fear erodes love and love erodes
56:33
fear thank you that’s beautiful great place to end it thanks for watching click to join us
56:41
on another journey and don’t forget to subscribe [Music]
