E28: Gnosis- Cultivating Spiritual Wisdom with

Special Guest Janell Hartman

E28 Introduction

Spiritual wisdom is something that I have been fascinated with since I was a young man. Tales of spiritual enlightenment and the quest for deeper truths have long held my heartstrings.

I remember one of the first books on mysticism I read was Ram Dass’s Be Here Now. Like it has for countless people over the decades, that book opened a door for me into the deeply mysterious nature of not only a reality but my own inner being.

As a young man, I explored as many of the wisdom traditions as I could, comparing and contrasting. I was also drawn to philosophers and teachers that could elegantly synthesize the vast amount of information that I was being exposed to. There were mountains beyond my own small-town upbringing and my heart was seeking truth and moving me towards them.

I would eventually go from my own traditions here in the west to Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta in India back to Egypt, the Hermetic tradition, as well as Native American and other earth-centered traditions. Along the way, there was Joseph Campbell and the Hero‘s Journey and the myth of the Holy Grail. Each stop seemed to have spiritual truths to teach me and all seekers who came. There seemed to be universal threads that ran through it all and my curiosity kept me eagerly seeking universal patterns.

The Gnostics were always mentioned in my travels. Here seemed to be a tribe that had intimate knowledge of the Divine. For a Gnostic, there are techniques for direct communication with the Sacred. Through prayer, meditation, and other techniques, a seeker could fine-tune his body-mind-and- spirit to become a better two-way receptor for Divine guidance and messages. And the more you can open up yourself to receive this information, the more you trust the process and are able to live from your deepest wisdom and truth.

There are many ways up the mountain as the mystics have said so often. I am deeply grateful to all of our teachers, yours and mine, and the myths that we keep alive to help shine a light on our path. Even though our paths might be different, I see all the work YOU are doing and I am grateful for you. We will see each other a bit higher up the mountain my friend.

My guest today is a mystically inclined, wonderful woman named Janell Hartman. I hope you enjoy our interview.

Basecamp for Men E28: Gnosis-Cultivating Spiritual Wisdom