How to Raise Your Spiritual Awareness Without Giving Up Your Religion

We talk with Chris Lippincott about building spiritual awareness without giving up religion, starting from his skeptical Wall Street past and the meditation practice that changed his life. We explore intention, evidence, and simple habits that help us feel calmer, more present, and more connected to spirit.
• Chris’s journey from finance to spiritual awakening through daily meditation
• A vivid out-of-body experience and the feeling of unconditional love
• Working with fear by focusing on intention and the energy you invite
• The difference between religion as structure and spirituality as direct connection
• How meditation quiets the “monkey mind” and opens space for inner guidance
• Why phones and constant stimulation make stillness feel harder than it is
• Practical ways to begin without pressure, including reading near-death experiences
• What evidential mediumship looks like, including “yes/no/maybe” and strong standards
• Red flags when a medium asks questions or prompts you for details
Dear listeners, do stay tuned. There's a meditation inspired by today's show

Chris's contact details and link to podcast: https://montclairmedium.com/home

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Transcript

Welcome Back And Guest Tease

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Hello everybody, I'm your host, the Gentle Yoga Warrior, and I'm delighted because I've got a special guest journey me on the show this week. Last week there was no show because I was feeling under the weather, but I'm delighted to be back on air again. And wow, do we have a good show this week? Super intrigued to interview this guest. Was listening to their audible book earlier and got to about chapter three. And it's one of those books I want to hear all the way through because some of the stuff that this guest was saying I could just super relate to and have had similar experiences. And I thought, you know, the time of the year as we record this, you might be listening to this a completely different time of the year, but it's coming up to the summer holidays for schools over here. So there's a lot of people be away. I always feel that you know a holiday because it has to be a time to kind of like work on ourselves. And I thought, what a good title for the short a day, which is how to raise your spiritual awareness without giving up your religious spirit, spirit, religious or spiritual beliefs. And the reason we've got Chris Lippingcott on The Show Today is they are an author, hence the book Spirit Besiders, which I was listening to earlier, an evidential medium, spiritual teacher, and meditation guide. And Chris has been helping people for a long time to help people rediscover their own sense of peace and purpose and work-free stuff, and strengthen their connection with the spiritual world without losing the ability to follow their own personal faith journey, whatever that means for that person. And so I'm really intrigued to have Chris on the show soon. So without further ado, please welcome Chris Lippincott to the show. Welcome to the show, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Well, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Oh no, you're very welcome. So, Chris, would you mind letting Olyssters know which part of the world you're joining us from today?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

I'm joining from Asheville, North Carolina, which is sort of halfway down the east coast. And it's uh nice and sunny outside, and it's about probably 80 degrees. So it's a pleasant.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

The general thing about the interview today is we're going to talk about how to raise your spiritual awareness about giving up your religion or faith. And I thought that would be particular of interest to uh our listeners. Would you mind explaining a bit about your journey so far and how you how you came to where you are today?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Sure. It's it's a rather unusual journey. I as you may know, I used to be a financial analyst. Uh I used to be on Wall Street, then I moved to the buy side. So for decades and decades, you know, I was in finance. I was a skeptical materialist, you know. And I started having these spiritual experiences that continued happening. And like most people, I kind of looked at and said, What is going on? I've got to be losing my mind.

From Wall Street To Meditation

SPEAKER_01 4:14

But they kept on happening. And when I was on Wall Street, I was, of course, very stressed out. I uh had to find a way to calm down uh because I was taking all the stress out in my family and my friends might have do something. And I ran across this concept called meditation, which of course at the time I thought was complete bollocks. I was like, no, no, you can't do that. You know, I thought I had to be wearing a turban and the Hindu Kush or something. I was like, you can't do that. Uh but I ran across a audible track that was, you know, calm and didn't have any agenda. It was nice and short. And so I started listening to it. And I was like, oh, okay, this is pretty good. And next thing I know, kind of addicted to this 15-minute audio track. I'm like, wow, this is great. So I'd listen to it every day before I went to work. And about 12 months in, there's something about 12 months that turns on a switch. It's one weekend in my man cave, because every guy's got to have his man cave, right? And into this meditation, probably 30 minutes in, and I'm like, oh, this is fantastic. What's going on? Because all of a sudden I saw these in my mind's eye, these four silhouettes of people that for some reason I thought I recognized, but I didn't know who they were. Two on my left, two on my right. And I'm like, something's going on. And the guy all the way off to my right hand side was the tallest, biggest. And of course I thought I was just dreaming or something. But when all of a sudden that guy on the right-hand side shot a beam of energy straight through my chest, out through my back, I physically felt it, and I was jolted. I was like, oh my God. You mean I'm not I'm not asleep, I'm not dreaming. And that's kind of when I had this out-of-body experience where I was taken out and placed, I don't know, somewhere out in the universe, somewhere where I just felt connected to everything. And I felt like this thread in a in an infinite tapestry that just kept

The Out Of Body Breakthrough

SPEAKER_01 6:22

on going, you know, for forever. And that everything was connected and I was connected. And then I kind of got this feeling of total, unconditional, overwhelming love that the human word love doesn't even begin to understand. This was like the top 1%, you know, love is like the top percent of the iceberg. This was the other 99% that you never see. And uh I felt like a child who was infinitely embraced by a parent, right? That's it's like that overwhelming acceptance. And to to that whole concept, I kept on hearing in my mind's ear, if you will, the concept of you're perfect, you're perfect, you're perfect, which of course I could not accept at all. I'm like, there's no way I'm perfect. You don't know what I've done on my in my life. I am so not perfect, so I refuse to accept it, but it just kept on coming. Just kept on coming. And eventually, you know, I come out of it, and I was just like, what just happened? And as soon as I came out of it, that's kind of when the portal reopened and I started having all the same experiences I had when I was a kid. I could hear voices, I could feel senses, I could, you know, that's when all my you know uh clair sentences opened up again.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

So it's kind of so it just took me from, you know, I I guess I had them when I was a child, because all children have them, they're all open, you know, they they've never been told no. But when we grow to adults, we're told, oh, you can't do that stuff. That's that's imagination. Apparently it's not. Because that's when it reopened, and I'm like, oh wow. And so then I, you know, I went down the rabbit hole, I started studying it, controlling it, practicing it, and eventually I'm just like, okay, Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Wow. So it must have been quite quite quite quite an experience. Um I'm gonna go slightly, how do you not, you know, when you kind of have these experiences, like how do you not like get scared? Uh is it like because sometimes I yeah, I'm just gonna go to the back.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

That's a good question. In the very beginning, I was scared to death because you know, we've all been conditioned by like Hollywood movies, right? The ghost stories. So that's kind of that's that's immediately what our mind goes to. Our our mind immediately goes to if it's a ghost, it's gotta be evil, it's gonna be a monster, it's gonna take you away. And so I would start to meditate and I'd have one eye open. Because for the longest, you know, for for years and years and years, I would always feel something behind me, but I didn't know what it was. I thought I was a grown man, just deathly afraid of the dark. But but I didn't really know what these fears were, you know, the classic goosebumps and all. But what my body was picking up was the energy from the non-physical entities that were surrounding me and that surround us all the time. And it took me forever to finally figure out that it's all about intention. If you set the intention for love and healing and comfort, that's what you're going to attract because like attracts like, it's all about energy. So if you're setting that intention, that's what you receive back.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Oh, that's really soothing to hear that. That makes sense

Fear Of Spirits And Intention

SPEAKER_00 9:51

not to be scared because I'm kind of I've always kind of felt things in in my house. It's really old, my house in the country that is really old. And I've always felt like energy. So when I was reading your book, it made me feel oh, actually, this happened to someone else. But um, anyway, I'm kind of directed a bit off what we're going to talk about today, but um, I'll get back to that. So um so Chris, I know that you've helped people for a very long time to help raise their spiritual awareness, but you've worked with people of all different faiths and you found a way to kind of bring those two together. Can you explain how you've how you've done that for any listener that's interested?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Sure. Religion and spirituality are two very different things. Spirituality is one's personal connection with spirit or with non-physical entities. It's it's your one-on-one relationship with whatever higher power you believe in. That could be something that you call God, something that you call an angel, something that you call whatever name you want to put to it. Religion is an organized body that creates something that tells everybody else what they're supposed to believe. It's an organized organization. And it's between you and them, they're the middleman, and they will tell you how things work. They'll set the fate, they'll set the organization, they'll say, whatever, you know, do 10 Hail Marys and we'll and we'll get you to the Pearly Gates, or pay us money and we'll get you to the Pearl Gates. Yeah. Back when it was like the Middle Ages, all the indulgences, which which to me just I have to shake my head out. I'm like, you can't be serious. But there is this desire for control

Religion Versus Personal Spirituality

SPEAKER_01 11:44

with so many religions that they want to hold on to that control, that power. And that's why we're starting to see so many people moving away from organized religion to individualized spirituality because they feel they want to have control of their own direction. Now, they don't conflict necessarily, they don't have to. I mean, religion can support spirituality because many religions have the same ultimate destination. Let's say, taking a religion, for example, Christianity has the ultimate destination of quote-unquote God, right? Spirituality has the same concept, whether you're doing the SNU or whatever. It's the same concept that you know maybe you believe in that power called God or whatever name you want to put to it. But the difference is one is you and the and destination, whereas religion is the organized religion tells you what to do and they're gonna help you do it themselves. So it's kind of based on where the power lies, I guess, is kind of the difference.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

That makes sense, that makes sense. And as and between the different religions and the work with spirituality, have you seen like a kind of common thread in a sense that with the work they've done with you and their connection to their religious faith, which like you said, spirituality is different to religion. Have you seen a a a way that they've kind of commonly been able to achieve both at the same time, if that makes sense?

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yeah, I mean, you can you can definitely have your religion, you don't have to give up your religion at all. In fact, I encourage people to you know hold on to their religion if it if it's meaningful to them, because that gives them the the the grounding, it gives them the the path, it gives them something beyond themselves. That's why religion is so attractive, because they no longer have to say, I believe it myself. It's more like I've got somebody else to kind of take me by the hand and show me the direction where I'm supposed to go. So if if that's something that makes somebody feel good, great, follow it. But you don't have to only do religion. That's kind of the point I'm trying to get across. Is you can use religion as sort of a crutch, as a guideline, as you know, if you want some suggestions, some help, great. But you you don't have to rely on them 100%. You know, you can say, okay, yeah, sure, I'll I'll go to services and I'll kind of get some ideas, but I'll have some one-on-one time for myself because I I want to do that myself. You know, do both. They're not mutually exclusive.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

That makes sense. That makes perfect sense. If I'm a listener and I'm thinking, actually, I want to build my spiritual awareness. How does meditation, in your opinion, fit into that? And what's the best way for them to go about it?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Great question. Meditation is very important for spirituality and/or religion because what it does is it helps you quiet the monkey mind that's constantly chattering away, that's gonna kind of get in your way if you are trying to allow yourself to have the connection to whatever you feel is beyond you, because your conscious mind is constantly blabbering like like a like a loudspeaker. It's constantly

Meditation To Quiet The Monkey Mind

SPEAKER_01 16:04

going yappity, yappity, yappity yep. And you can't really concentrate when you got your your speaker over here going yappity, yappity, yep, always going in, you know, in your in your mind. When you're in meditation, what the meditation allows you to do is to finally quiet that monkey mind, and it allows you to quiet the logical analytical mind that's constantly going, so that finally that that annoying Frankie brain, I call it, starts to go a little bit quieter and a little bit quieter and a little bit quieter. And before you know it, you start realizing, hey, wow, it's not quite so loud in here anymore. I think I hear something else. And that thing that you start to hear is no longer your monkey mind that wants the control. You start to hear other voices, other sounds, other connections, and you're become more aware of your surroundings, whether you're actually hearing nature or you're starting to hear the whispers of spirit.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Beautiful. Yeah, I know if I let if I let my my mind just if I don't meditate, my mind just goes like too too too much. It's like it's like it's narrating like some sort of movie or something, and I kind of just think, oh, actually, I'm gonna step back from the this and and kind of just be do you think it's a challenge as well for a lot of people, isn't it, in today's in the age like on like the um the underground sometimes uh I see everyone's like on on their phones and and I I and I uh and you know I know everyone's busy, but I just I sometimes wonder if if the value of just kind of like being, and that I guess that's what meditation does, it opens the door to that.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Totally, and especially these days and for the you know newer generations that grew up on a phone, they they know nothing but phones, unfortunately. I just look at my you know 24-year-old, and that's all he knows, and and then the generation beyond that, they can't even talk to each other now. So it's kind of a sad state of affairs. So, yeah, when you when you think about the option of uh sitting quietly, it's such a novel concept because we're just flooded, we're inundated. I mean, think of Steve Jobs. Even Steve Jobs knew that his iPhone was going to be destructive to his kids. He didn't let his kids get an iPhone. Yes. The

Phones Attention And Modern Overload

SPEAKER_01 18:40

founder of Apple did not allow his kids to have an iPhone. Get that. Does that tell you something?

SPEAKER_00 18:47

It does, definitely, definitely. You know, because I like I use Instagram for work. I had to take, I actually took it off of my phone, and I don't look at my phone like a lot compared to most people, I would say, but I took it off my phone because I was just looking at it and it was just so addictive. And I thought, if this is doing this to someone of my age, what's it gonna do with children? Yeah, and then it will aggrieve you. So if you kind of look at something, it'll start bringing up those similar kinds of things, and then everyone always thinks it's right as well about everything. It's it's it's crazy. So that's why I guess the the antidote to all of this is to raise our spiritual work through like working with yourself and and and meditation. So if I'm a listener and I'm thinking, oh, I would love to be more spiritual, but I don't consider myself spiritual. What of besides the meditation, is there anything else that you could suggest that they could do to help build their spiritual awareness?

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Well, if a person likes reading, definitely start taking out books. Start taking out, you know, if if you want to get sort of started on the ground floor and you're kind of skeptical, but you're curious, you can kind of start the way I did. Start reading stories about near-death experiences. What was so fascinating looking back is that Spirit basically was dropping breadcrumbs in front of me for like 20 years, and I never even realized it until after the fact because they kept on throwing books at me, book after book after book after book after book, and I would just swallow them whole. I couldn't stop reading. It was like they gave me this massive library of Alexandria to read for 20 years, and then all of a sudden I had my spiritual experience. I'm like, oh gosh, you guys really are pretty thorough, aren't you? So I would I would say if you don't want to start by a meditation, which for some people can be difficult, just start reading books. You know, there are there are so many books that are out there. Whether, you know, you can look at near-death experiences, life after life by Raymond Moody, that's a famous one. Look at all the scientific uh researchers and and and all their things. I mean, they're just

Books And Near Death Evidence

SPEAKER_01 21:05

look at look look at look at look at the research studies that that itself, if you're skeptical, there's so much evidence out there that if you were to take all that evidence, take it to a court of law, the person who has all the evidence wins.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah, I like that. The person who's got the evidence wins, definitely. So, Chris, how does you know you an evidential medium? And this correctly wrong wrong, but this came about from from your spiritual like awakening and accepting like these gifts that you've had since like a child. So, how would working with a medium like yourself help someone on their spiritual growth and awareness?

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Okay. The first thing I would recommend is be wary of whom you go seek. Uh, because uh if you go to a medium who is trained through the Arthur Minley College or the SNU, there is a high standard of evidence that has to be passed before the information is considered to be genuine. So the way an evidential medium who is trained in the SNU method has to give evidence of who the communicator is first. And the sitter is only allowed to say yes, no, or maybe. That's it. You're not allowed to feed anything, you're only allowed to confirm or deny. And so the evidential medium gives lots of information about the communicator that's unique to the sitter, unique to the communicator, and comes in ways that there's no other possible way that the information could be garnered unless it was specific to the sitter. Say, for example, uh conversations that were privy between the sitter and the communicator, nobody else, or unique uh mannerisms or personality

Choosing A Trustworthy Evidential Medium

SPEAKER_01 23:11

traits, or shared memories, or really bizarre things that they used to do that nobody else would know. And it's just this layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of evidence that the communicator is desperately trying to give the sitter to confirm that the communicator is really them. And a lot of times it comes out completely bizarre. I mean, I'll give you an example. Like, there was one time where somebody, a communicator, was giving me evidence, and the next thing I know, I want to start talking about sneakers. I'm like, why the hell are they talking about sneakers? And sure enough, the sitter was Without missing a beat goes, oh my god, I know exactly what that is. Oh yes, and I'm just like, okay. But you know, there there's so many times you get these like crazy pieces of evidence, but that's the beauty of it. Like they'll get they'll they'll give you these really beautiful pieces of evidence, or sometimes tragic pieces of evidence to confirm who they are. So it's generally you know 60%, 70% evidence, maybe 30 or 40% message. And once the sitter has confirmed, yes, in fact, that is my person that I wanted to hear from, or somebody I definitely know based on all their evidence, you'll start to notice that the information shifts to why the communicator's coming through. You know, maybe they want to give you a message of love or forgiveness or apology, or you know, who knows, maybe the day's winning lottery number. I don't know. But you know, they they always come through for a reason. Sometimes it's just to say hi, sometimes it's just a quick passing. Usually, though, there's something, some fundamental reason, and they're the ones that are driving the bus. I always say they're the ones with the agenda. We're just the passengers on the bus that are coming to listen because they know why they're coming through. And sometimes, at least for me, it's it's often been it's very much like a rock concert where you get like the starting opening act that's kind of like the warm-up act, and then by and by the end, that's when you get you get the best uh communicator coming through. Not always it's it's it's it's kind it's kind of fun that way. It kind of builds up the anticipation of who comes through. But yeah, so if any reader out there or uh any listener is gonna be going for a uh a reading, make sure that the person who's giving you the information is not asking questions. That is a red flag. Yeah, because I yeah, I've I've I've gone to other mediums and psychics just for you know experiments and kind of you know fun. And uh, you know, the the classic sandwich board psychic goes, uh, do you have a mother in spirit?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

I'm like I'm like, come on, you tell me. You're the one who's supposed to give me the information. And 90% of the time they're getting it wrong. I'm just like, oh god, why am I even bothering being here? So excellent.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

And then if um and do you do I'm guessing, Chris, that you do medium readings online for people because this is an international audience, and if so, what's the best way that they can reach you through that?

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah, I have been doing readings on Zoom, and I've had you know readers, you know, sitters around the world. You know, it's especially since ever since COVID, it was uh so easy. Now everything's you know on Zoom. It's great. Lately I've you know pause doing readings, kind of taking a break, but if they if if people wanted to kind of uh see things, you know, they could you know go on my website. I know I've got links there, but uh the the links may be hidden for the time being.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Okay, that's fair enough if you'd be kind of busy, but our listeners can connect you from your your wonderful book Spirit Beside Us. And I was listening to that, and my partner said how soothing that your your voice is, we were listening to it, and he's saying, Oh, how soon your voice is, and I I'm I'm on it only on chapter three, I'm gonna go through it all because some of the stuff really helps me, Chris, because I I was thinking that I've always kind of like felt like hands in it again. I used to think I was like kind of gone crazy, and the my house in the countryside is really quite old, and it is sometimes I saw I am swear I saw someone on the stairs as well, and it's kind of like and and then it's a part of me that it's kind of got used to it, but also and it gets a little bit scared sometimes if I'm by myself. I must be honest.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

I can I can understand that I'd be like, whoa, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Especially when they just put the smoke smoke alarm on at three o'clock in the morning and went downstairs and there was not even any smoke. I was like, come on, do you really need to do this on a workday? But anyway. Yeah, it's just it's just it's it's just not cool at all. It's just not cool. I guess you know, if if if Alice isn't um to pick up your book spirit besides, which I've noticed was like on Amazon worldwide, that really explains in a lot of detail like your journey and also what you've learned along the way. That would be a good step for them, I feel.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Yeah, they could uh listen to the book, they could also listen to my podcast, which has the same title. So that's that's basically the live version of the book, just continued on.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Oh, fantastic. I'll put I'll put a link to your your podcast as well into the show notes. There's always that that's that'll be great help to our listeners. So if if you could leave all our listeners with one brilliant piece of advice of how that they could prove their life, their spiritual awareness, then what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

One way they can improve their spiritual awareness would have to be know that they can change their own reality just through the power of thought. Because we create our own reality every second of every day through our awareness, through our thinking, through every thought that we create. As Buddha once said, all that we are is a result of what we have thought. So the person you are today is a result of the person you were thinking about years ago. So begin to understand that you create your own universe around you, with you, as part of you. And so many people feel, oh, I'm not in control of my life. Well, I'm here to tell you. Yes, you are. You control your own life, you control your own reality, your own direction. And the biggest thing that you can possibly do is to think and focus on the now. You can't control the

Final Advice And Guided Forest Meditation

SPEAKER_01 30:21

past, can't control the future. The only thing you really control is the here and now. So focus on that. And that will get you that much farther ahead.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

I love that. And I felt a sense of calm as you were explaining explaining that, Chris. That was a a great help. I'll definitely put details of the show notes and also subscribe to your podcast, Spirit Beside Us. Is there any final thoughts you'd like to leave our listeners thought with?

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Final thoughts. Just allow yourself to be open to spirit because spirit really wants to connect with us. And you're much more aware of spirit than you realize. We've all just been conditioned to think otherwise.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

I like that. So wise words, wise words from Chris Lithincott. Thank you for joining us, Chris. I'm I'm gonna look forward to listening to your podcast and to your book and the and all the amazingness, amazing stuff that you shared with us today. Dear listeners, do stay tuned. There's a meditation inspired by today's show, but the one and only Chris Lithincott. Thank you for joining us, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Well, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Top tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross-legged on the floor with a nice straight back, always nice to sit on a block or a cushion. Or that's not available for you. You sit in a chair with the back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching. And if you're doing something that requires little concentration, all you need to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, that's begin. Recorded live in a private forest. And I'm surrounded by birds, and you can hear the water from the brook and the little river behind me. I'm gonna take some slow, calm, deep breaths and just start to take some steps by your imagination. You can also be in a forest with all its noises. And as you breathe slowly, calmly, and deeply in this forest, you start to take a little journey. So you're walking slowly on the ground. And as you walk along in your imagination, you know that change is made up of steps. Always done from a place of mindfulness as much as we can. Sometimes we have to dive in deep, and sometimes we have to step in slow. But whatever we do for life, everything happens by making the first step. So what first steps can you make today? What changes? Perhaps to slightly go outside one's comfort zone, which isn't always what we want to do. However, remember there's more discomfort in life by not making changes. Disease in the body is when we're at disease. So what small steps can you make today as you walk through this imaginary forest? The sound of the feet on the ground, the smell of the flowers, the wildflowers, the rustle of the little creatures, the song of the bird. What is your song? What is your goal? What is your mission in life? The textures of the leaves on the ground. What can you show up today to do that might be slightly discomfort discomfort in the long term or bring ease. As we come out with a meditation, as you inhale, as you exhale, you begin to make a note of it. You can make towards that. It can be a little step. Sometimes it's a giant leaf. Sometimes it is just a tiny microstat, but whatever it is. Just a step into your flow.