How can we radiate more love? How do we transcend Fear? How do we take back our minds to live our fullest potential?
You do not want to miss this life-changing conversation with Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, the Founder of Agape International Spiritual Center. You may know him from "The Secret," but his work is that of a true humanitarian and spiritual luminary.
In this conversation, we will transform your understanding of spirituality and its role in our lives. Our heartfelt exchange peels back the layers of Fear and disconnection, liberating spirituality from the misconceptions of being just another trendy fad and illuminating the eternal essence of our spiritual being.
In the shadow of the pandemic, our conversation underscores the importance of a joyful discipline, transforming trepidation into excitement and enthusiasm and propelling us toward manifesting our deepest dreams.
In a world often obscured by a digital haze, we underscore the importance of compassion over condemnation in the landscape of social media, fostering understanding instead of judgment.
I hope his wisdom leaves you with a profound sense of connection to your own spiritual journey. If you want more- You can check out the podcast TAKE BACK YOUR MIND to continue this spiritual and loving soul binge on your favorite podcast players!
TAKE BACK YOUR MIND PODCAST
MICHAEL BECKWITH OFFICIAL SITE
AGAPE LIVE
About your Host- Alexia Melocchi
Buy My Book - An Insiders Secret: Mastering the Hollywood Path
Alexia Melocchi - Website
The Heart of Show Business - Website
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn
Thanks for listening! Follow us on X, Instagram and Facebook and on the podcast's official site www.theheartofshowbusiness.com
How can we radiate more love? How do we transcend Fear? How do we take back our minds to live our fullest potential?
You do not want to miss this life-changing conversation with Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, the Founder of Agape International Spiritual Center. You may know him from "The Secret," but his work is that of a true humanitarian and spiritual luminary.
In this conversation, we will transform your understanding of spirituality and its role in our lives. Our heartfelt exchange peels back the layers of Fear and disconnection, liberating spirituality from the misconceptions of being just another trendy fad and illuminating the eternal essence of our spiritual being.
In the shadow of the pandemic, our conversation underscores the importance of a joyful discipline, transforming trepidation into excitement and enthusiasm and propelling us toward manifesting our deepest dreams.
In a world often obscured by a digital haze, we underscore the importance of compassion over condemnation in the landscape of social media, fostering understanding instead of judgment.
I hope his wisdom leaves you with a profound sense of connection to your own spiritual journey. If you want more- You can check out the podcast TAKE BACK YOUR MIND to continue this spiritual and loving soul binge on your favorite podcast players!
TAKE BACK YOUR MIND PODCAST
MICHAEL BECKWITH OFFICIAL SITE
AGAPE LIVE
About your Host- Alexia Melocchi
Buy My Book - An Insiders Secret: Mastering the Hollywood Path
Alexia Melocchi - Website
The Heart of Show Business - Website
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn
Thanks for listening! Follow us on X, Instagram and Facebook and on the podcast's official site www.theheartofshowbusiness.com
Welcome to the Heart of Show business. I am your host, alexia Melochi. I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society. Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together. My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television and music industry works. We will cover Dreams Come True, the Road, life's Travel, journey, beginnings and a lot of insight and inspiration in between.
Speaker 1:I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams. Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world? Then let's roll sound and action. Alright. Reverend Michael Beckwith, welcome to my show. To begin with, I am so honored and blessed to be in your presence and to have been following you through so many years, of course for the Eden Magazine and also for the podcast. Everybody sort of discovered you when the secret came out, although Agape has been around since 1986. So I'm just wondering how did Rhonda Byrne find you to begin with?
Speaker 2:You're absolutely correct. Agape had been going on for some time, since 1986, and it was pretty full even before the secret, and the secret just put it over the top. Basically, I was invited to go to Aspen with other thought leaders that were friends of mine to film the secret, but I couldn't do it because my schedule was too tight. It just could not be done. So they did the major part of the filming with Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield and a number of other of my friends in Aspen. And then Rhonda Byrne was flying to Australia, where she was from, but she had a layover in Los Angeles. So she had this layover and she decided to go to this place called the Agape International. And she goes to Agape International and I'm speaking and after I finished speaking she comes running up to me and she says oh my God, this is fabulous. Everything you said is just so magnificent. Will you be in my movie? And I said what movie? She said it's called the Secret and I said, oh yeah, people told me about that. You guys just filmed in Aspen. And she said, yes, will you be in it? I said sure, and she says, well, can we put up a blue screen and a green screen and just start shooting. I said sure, so they put up a green screen.
Speaker 2:She started interviewing me and after a few moments of interviewing me, she said wow, this is fantastic, just talk, I'm not going to ask you any more questions, just talk, just teach. And that's what I did. Her and Drew began to ask a few more questions. I started teaching and then the rest is history. She took what I taught that day and obviously edited portions of it within the movie called the Secret, and the rest is history and went obviously more than viral, and the secret today still has legs. People are still discovering it. I go to places around the world and people come up to me and they've just seen it or they've watched it again, and they gave me great thanks for my participation in it as the featured teacher. And it was just a fantastic, serendipitous moment that she had to have a layover in Los Angeles before she went to Australia. She comes to Agape, sees me teaching and next day I'm in the movie.
Speaker 1:Gosh, I love this manifestation stuff. I mean it was obviously the perfect time and the perfect place, just as the perfect time and the perfect place that I have you here after so many years I've been visioning having you on my podcast since I first created it in 2020. And here we go, so I can totally relate to that. So there you have it. You know, I have to ask you because obviously there is nobody really spoke about spirituality before. I mean, they did, but they associated with like new age, woo-woo stuff. And then you know the secret came out and then obviously Agape and what it stands for, everybody goes as a Sassama spiritual person. But how do you really define spirituality and the practice of it?
Speaker 2:Well, when you use the word spiritual, that word is synonymous with eternal and forever. So when we say that we are a spiritual being, we're saying in substance that who we really are, in our essence is, has emerged from the eternal presence. It's beyond religiosity or religion. It's our real nature. So when someone says I'm a spiritual being, everyone is really a spiritual being, whether they know it or not. Some people don't know that they're a spiritual being. They think that they were created by their parents. They were imprinted by society, imprinted by the schools they went to and the experiences they had. Those are temporary imprints and your parents just allowed you to come into this dimension, but your parents didn't create you. We have emerged from the eternal presence of intelligence, love and beauty, and so when you say that we are spiritual, we're basically saying that we are eternal beings and we have a lifetime that has infinite chapters.
Speaker 2:It used to be said that you know you have different lifetimes, and that's true in a sense, but we have one life with many chapters, and those chapters may include different incarnations, but we are spiritual beings, here to expand our awareness of the ineffable, of that which is real. Again, spiritual can be you. The word real can be put there, capital are real, real, eternal, forever. We're here to expand our awareness of that which is real and then express it, reveal it, manifest it as according to our unique pattern. So you so. It is true. It is not New Age, woo Woo, it is not just a temporary fad. To have a spiritual practice means that you're having certain technologies and intentionalities to expand your awareness so that you begin to see, be and live differently. You live according to love, beauty, intelligence, divine order. These qualities are intrinsic within every spiritual being, but oftentimes hidden because people have been imprinted and they're blinded by time. You see Hope. That makes sense there.
Speaker 1:Oh no, absolutely, and I actually I believe that and I believe that I think there is an association of spirit. I'm a spiritual person, therefore I must be perfect and I am perfect, and and I think the biggest challenge that we all have is that I know one of your principles, that Agape is always that you are a unique manifestation of the God presence. Right, and we're celebrating that, and but it's sometimes difficult to consider yourself unique when you feel your flood, because it's we are the biggest and worst judges of ourselves. So somehow people think associated spirituality with perfectionism. And so when we, when we feel flawed, how do we embrace the shortcomings and still be connected to our God self?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're asking a very, very important question. When we are perfect but we're not perfectionist, meaning that there's something about our spiritual nature that's perfect, there's something about what we have emerged from is perfect, and that perfection is always unfolding, so it's called unfoldment and evolution. So when you see a seed of a rose, let's say as an example, within that seed is the rose bush and ultimately the rose which is the perfection of the rose bush. So within us is the germ of the seed of the Christ or of the Buddha mind, that which is perfect. But we are unfolding to reveal that. So it's not about being perfect According to societal standards. It's about doing what is necessary to eliminate the, that which is covering our, our, our mind, from seeing who we are, so that we're unfolding to reveal the perfection.
Speaker 2:Now, oftentimes people are one harsh and very judgmental of themselves because they're comparing themselves to other people. They have some kind of standards from society that they're placing themselves against, when we are incomparable. We can never compare ourselves to anyone else because we are unique. How can I say that? Because this presence, you can call it the God presence, you can call it the love presence, you can call it life itself, one it never does do-overs, it gets right the first time. Two, it never repeats itself, so that, because it's infinite, it can never repeat itself. So we are one of one. We're not one of eight billion, we are one of one. There's no one else like us, just like there's no leaves on the tree exactly like another leaf. There's no snowflake exactly like another snowflake. We are not exactly like any other spiritual being having a human incarnation. So we're already unique, you see.
Speaker 2:And so when we understand that we're already unique, then we begin to ask ourselves what is it within me that I am to give, that I am to contribute, that I am to share, what is my artistry, what is my element of creativity that I'm to share with the world? And as I begin to ask that question, I begin to hear, with the still small. I begin to hear the still small voice. I begin to hear the rumbling of my soul as to my own uniqueness and to what I'm to give, and then I begin to share that, along the way, I begin to discover areas in which I put myself down. I begin to discover imprints, the way the world has imprinted me. That has hindered me from seeing the perfection they may have revealed themselves as what the world may call a flaw or a mistake.
Speaker 2:Well, a mistake within us is two things. One it's a mistake, like an actor will have a take, and then they miss a little bit and that's called a mistake. Then they take it over. You see, but really what it is inside of us is a gift, in embryonic. It's in its embryonic state. It's just something within us that needs to grow. It's not that we're evil or bad, it's just something within us that needs a little watering, a little tending to, and then we grow. If we look back on our life, we can see some of the mistakes and some of the seeming flaws were exactly what is necessary for us to learn more about ourselves so that we could take better steps. Better takes the next time.
Speaker 2:Everyone's imprinted From the time you're in the womb of your mom. There are conversations around you when you come into the world. There are people talking about things, there are things on the news, there's the social milieu. We get imprinted. There are people that are brainwashed into racism and things of that particular nature. They get imprinted and so after, as we grow, we begin to realize oh, those imprints are not who I am, those are things, the dust and the dirt of the world that's gotten on me.
Speaker 2:I begin to meditate. I begin to affirmatively pray. I begin to practice life visioning. I begin to practice affirmation study. I begin to do spiritual practices that begin to dissolve the imprints. I begin to see who I really am. It's called a homecoming. I come back to my real nature and then I begin again, you see, and we're not flawed beings. Humanly there are flaws. Humanly there are imprints, but spiritually we're all right. We're coming back to our spiritual nature. Often times people are religiously abused. They'll be part of a religion that incorrectly tells them that they're born from sin and that there's something called an original sin. That's called religious abuse. If you take a small child and you tell them that they have an original sin and they actually believe that, they start to diminish their light. They start to feel that there's something wrong with them. There's nothing wrong with what God has created.
Speaker 1:We just have to rediscover it and we have to activate it and grow into it, you see yeah, wow, that is such a beautiful statement and I actually would like to add to that Look at how many people have gone through challenges. You know where you're talking about, the you know being flawed. Tina Turner, you know, I mean, she went through so much and then through the mud, like you know, she became a Buddhist and she started chanting the Nam-Nyoy Rengge Kyo, which is about the lotus flower that is born to the mud. But then that flaw of maybe accepting the abuse, of maybe going through all that, look who she became as a result of that and how she used her voice. And so I always say to people your voice, no matter how small or insignificant you may think it is, has so much power. You know the right words at the right time.
Speaker 1:I mean, how many times we come to Agape, and it's crazy, when I come to see you, I'm looking for an answer sometimes, and somehow, where you're talking about that day exactly addresses what I need to hear in the moment. And so the voice of even the challenges that we had, it is so important and it's just how you turn, like you said, your mistake into. Let me do a take instead of a mistake. You know, a new take A new take, a new take, and you know, and then going into the vibration of joy. Right, I know that and I love coming to Agape because you always have amazing artists. I don't even know why you bring them out of the woods and then they bring so much joy and dancing. And you started a movement called Dance with a Rev. You're a great dancer, so I wanted to know why does music and dance contribute to going into a feeling state of joy and gratitude?
Speaker 2:Well, that's very powerful. Even before I established Agape in 1986, I had something called Agape Transformational, which were seminars before. Seminars were very popular and I had different exercises and transformational exercises. But I always began those exercises with music to help people get into their heart space and out of their head. And music and lyrics particularly the music, but in the lyrics are very important as well.
Speaker 2:That particular sound, that's the vibration. And the vibration and since we're mainly water we're 80% to 90% water that vibration goes into your body and the water and it changes the body chemistry so that not only are you receptive on a heart level, but your immune system becomes balanced and amplified. You start to produce tonic chemicals rather than toxic chemicals and the body, which is a chemistry set that can produce every single thing that you need for health, begins to produce tonic chemicals. That allows you to be more healthy, slows down the aging process, eliminates the condition for disease. So music is not just entertainment, it's entrainment into a higher frequency.
Speaker 2:So when you combine music and then you combine motion, dance, moving of the body, temple, with an activated message, then individuals get elevated and they have a level of practice they're able to sustain that elevation throughout the course of the week and then the trajectory of their life changes. So, as I teach at Agape, you don't come to Agape to get high. You come to Agape to get free from the constraints, from the limited mind and heart sets and the limited toxicity that you're bombarded with from the world. The news which I call the old. So real music is very important. Real vibrational frequency is extremely important to sustain the insights that we get when we come to a place such as Agape International.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, and I have to say that, beyond obviously the dancing and the music, what kept me sane even during the pandemic, because you kept on doing your live streaming God bless you for that through the whole thing, and I remember when you were talking about we obviously don't want to go into politics, but you were talking about the fear is really the virus and cultivating the state of fear for so many years and obviously the mental health issues that whatever happened in the past three years has created. And so how can we fight Well, fight is not really the right word how can we challenge fear with all the war and the conflict that is going on even today, past the event?
Speaker 2:There's so much happening. As you said, the last three years had been a challenge to humanity with the lockdown of healthy people. First time it's ever happened in history was actually lockdown people who were healthy. It's never happened before. And then you had a pandemic of a coronavirus, of which coronavirus obviously has been existed for thousands of years. It's not a new thing. They just mutate. You see, that's what it does. It mutates. And so you combine that with the virus of the mind.
Speaker 2:The virus of the mind is fear. So when you have fear, you actually begin to hurt, hinder your immune system. Fear is not a friend to your immune system. Faith is joy is, love is. It assists your immune system, but fear hinders the immune system. So if an individual is addicted to the fear mongering that emanates from our newscasts, then you're hindering yourself.
Speaker 2:So, as you said, many people I get so many letters and testimonies today people saying, as you just said, you got me through the pandemic, you got me through COVID, you got me through coronavirus because I was so caught up in fear that I forgot who I was. But you brought me back to myself, which eliminated the fear, dissolved the fear in me. So this is why we put an emphasis on joy Joy is the evidence of God the emphasis on asking the right questions, the emphasis on not becoming addicted to the news so that you become afraid. So this is how you deal with fear. Fear stands for face everything and run, or face everything and rise.
Speaker 2:Many people, they face everything and then they run away from it. Or you can rise. Now how do you rise? Fear is an energy. So when you don't try to get rid of fear, that's impossible. If you try to get rid of fear, you end up having defense mechanisms, coping mechanisms and compulsive behavior. Many people have what I call a fear phobia. They are afraid of fear. So they drink, they eat a lot of sugar, they overeat, they watch too much television, they binge watch television rather than binge watch their own thinking.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, basically, they're trying to run away from fear. Instead of running away from fear, you ask instead what is it that is mine to do in the world right now? What gift am I to give? How am I to share right now? You ask that question. The universe will answer you and they'll say, maybe call a friend. They'll say, maybe go feed the homeless. Maybe they'll say, write a poem. Maybe the voice will say it's time for you to take a class. It'll give you something productive to do. You're not trying to get rid of fear. So when you start to walk in the direction of that vision or dream, fear then becomes excitement.
Speaker 1:It's just all energy. Everything is energy.
Speaker 2:So then fear transmutes itself into excitement. You start to become excited. Oh, I'm going to go feed the homeless today. I'm going to call a friend of mine and just have a friendly conversation. I'm going to write a letter to somebody that I haven't talked to in a while and just wish them well. So now my fear is becoming an energy called excitement, and then, if I keep going, it becomes enthusiasm. Don't get rid of the fear. It transmutes itself, just as ice, when it becomes heated, transmutes itself into water. If it becomes heated, it becomes transmuted itself into gas. Fear becomes excitement, excitement becomes enthusiasm. If you walk in the direction of a bigger dream, if you try to just get rid of fear, you can become an alcoholic. He can go to happy hour and not be happy, you know. He can watch television all day. You can eat chips and, just you know, feel yourself with nothing but empty calories. You can read it, or you can read a good book. You can read my book.
Speaker 1:Oh, all of them. I got them all and they're amazing, and even the CD ones. Are they coming? Yes, them in your car. If you still have a CD in your car, you can do something else.
Speaker 2:You see, yeah, watch my podcast, take back your mind.
Speaker 1:Which is amazing. Yeah, fellow podcaster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the point is, I want people to know they don't have to be burdened with fear. They can actually walk in the direction of a higher dream, a higher vision, and fear will change. And now your immune system is stronger, your blood pressure is better, you're assimilating your nutrition better, you're digesting your food better, you're eliminating toxins better, you're becoming healthier, you're slowing down your aging process and you become more available to insights and sweet whisperings from the universal presence, guiding you, always guiding you, if you will, but listen. Mistake that people make. They try to get rid of their fear. No, let it be transmuted by you walking in the direction of your dream and your vision.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is so beautiful. I just now I remember don't run Rise, don't run Rise. That's the keyword. It's everything is in the R Face everything, run or face everything and rise. Rise. I love that. So is that something that is related also to what you call a blissful plan? I got you a little book from this Sunday. So how do you practice blissful plan, as you call it, and how does it enhance the readers of Eda Magazine or the listeners for their ability to manifest their blissful plans?
Speaker 2:Blissful plan is a word that I coined many years ago. It's in my book Spiritual Liberation, and I was teaching. I don't remember how many years ago, but I was speaking and what came out was the fact that if you have a discipline, let's say you wake up every day and I teach people to wake up every day, for example, and to read their vision, read something they want to manifest. Just read it Before you go to bed, read it when you wake up in the morning, or read an affirmation, or read something inspirational, or practice meditation, affirmative prayer. What happens is if you become disciplined and discipline comes from the awareness that a disciple is doing something they love. If a person loves music, they can become a disciple of learning how to play the piano or the guitar, and what happens is the discipline becomes a blissful plan. You feel good when you do it. It's not obligation, it's not like, oh, I'm disciplined and I have to do it when you really love it. It's like you want to do it. You want to read your affirmation in the morning, you want to stop and have a moment of meditation. So discipline evolves to a blissful plan. It's like you can't. I tell people don't leave home without it. Don't leave home without stopping for a few moments, instead of getting to the hustle and bustle of life. Stop, have a moment of silence, stillness, solitude and feel your way back to yourself After a while. You love it. It's a bliss. It's bliss, you love it, you see.
Speaker 2:So discipline becomes discipline if you have a spiritual practice, you see, and then it's like I can't live without it. I can sit for long periods of time if I have the time. I love it, and I start to get information, knowledge, insights into new ways of teaching, new ways of saying spiritual principles. I start to get insights into things that are about to happen in life, that make me more prepared. You see, so oftentimes, when people hear the word discipline, they think of something almost negative oh, I've got to be disciplined. But the root word is actually to love. I'm disciplined because I love music. I'm disciplined because I love working out, because I want to be healthy. I'm disciplined because I love eating good food. And then it becomes a blissful plan. It feels good, you see.
Speaker 1:So that's where it comes. It does feel good because I think when we think about discipline, it's almost like a student they go do your homework, you got to do your homework every day and you're like no, I want to do my homework and even though it's helping you, you're not doing it. So the bliss of it is so important and you know, like my grandson, he likes to learn.
Speaker 2:So he reads and does his homework, not because he has to, but he's a student of learning, so it becomes a bliss of plan. Baba, did you know about this? I just read x, y and z. He likes to learn. So it's a bliss of plan, not just oh, I got to do my homework because I got to get an A and I got to graduate on time. It's no, I love learning. The byproduct is you may get a good grade, you may graduate, et cetera. That's the byproduct of learning. So bliss.
Speaker 2:Most people don't get bliss. Since we're bringing up the word bliss, it's like when you start to wake up and become free, you come into a fork in the road. One side of the fork is pleasure, the other side of the fork is bliss. So some choose pleasure which is temporary and you can become addicted to pleasure. But if you choose bliss which comes from awakening, you get pleasure but you get freedom. If you're just a pleasure seeker, you may not get freedom, you may just get addiction. Oh, it's so much pleasure to eat all this chocolate, it's a pleasure to do this, it's a pleasure to do that. But if you come to yourself, you get bliss and pleasure, but the bliss is more permanent and the pleasure is more permanent. You don't become addicted to bliss, you can only become addicted to pleasure.
Speaker 1:I had never thought of it this way. Wow, okay, I would think that also bliss is being in nature. I know you spoke about being in a meditative state and being on your own. Obviously, we're looking at the sanctity and depression of Mother Earth. You do a lot of retreats in nature, which I've seen bucket list. For me to come to one of them, one's in Costa Rica. Do you feel that being in nature is actually helping us? How can we protect the sanctity of this planet? Is it has to do with our energy? Is this the way we eat? Do we have to do something in order to keep it going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're asking two questions in one, but I think there are two good questions. One, when you go into nature, like a tree is a living being, it's alive. So two a couple of things are happening. One, when you breathe out, the tree is breathing in. The forest is our second set of lungs. We breathe out carbon dioxide, it breathes in carbon dioxide and gives us oxygen. So the forest, the rainforest and the woods, they are our lungs. So there's a symbiotic relationship with the grass and with the flowers and with the trees and the bushes and the foliage. They are our lungs. So we're one with each other. Secondly, the tree's alive.
Speaker 2:When you walk through the forest, the tree literally vibrantly bows at your divinity. The tree recognizes your divine nature. So when you're basking in nature, you're getting all of this vibrational feedback as to who you are as a spiritual being, of which you may have forgotten because you have shoes on, you're walking on cement and you're in an office or you're in a car, cutting you off from nature. So you're depleting yourself from a natural source. Some people call it a resource because it's re-sourcing the presence, but it's a natural source of inspiration. So that's one thing.
Speaker 2:Secondly, when we start to have reverence for the earth, which is holy, reverence for Mother Nature. And we get that reverence by having an awareness that we're at one with nature and men and I use the word men on purpose. When men don't feel connected to Mother Earth, they strip mine the earth, they bomb other nations, scorch the earth with napalm and phosphorus and neutron bombs, and not only killing human beings, but they don't have any reverence for the earth. They strip mine it, they cut down the rainforest because they're not in touch with themselves. They've drifted so far from who they are. They have no sanctity and no reverence for the earth as well as for other human beings. So, as we grow more in our spiritual nature, we love the earth, we love the oceans, we love the rivers, we love the lakes, we love the trees. We're not going to pollute it, we're not going to put plastic in the oceans that kill the fish and the dolphins and the whales. We're not going to put sewage in the ocean. You see, we start to realize oh my God, I'm one with Mother Earth. I am an earthling, I'm a spiritual being that I've emerged from the earth. I want to be a good steward of the earth. I don't want to pollute it or bomb it. I want to take care of it as I would take care of myself.
Speaker 2:However, many people don't take care of themselves. They'll take care of their automobile better than they'll take care of their body temple. They'll put the best gas in their body temple but to put fast foods they'll put the best gas in their car and then put non-nutritional food in the body temple because they're so far removed from themselves. So when a person starts to awaken to their spiritual nature, the ramifications are you start to love who you are, not from an egocentric point of view. You start to love what the universe has created, a one of a kind.
Speaker 2:You start to realize you're one with nature. You start to take care of nature. You start to take care of the earth. You start to have reverence for each other. Doesn't matter what color skin they are, doesn't matter where they were born, doesn't matter what language they speak, doesn't matter what their nationality is, what their religion means. You start to realize, oh my God, we're all sacred beings. We've emerged from the eternal as unique expressions of God. How boring would the world be if every single being looked exactly alike Exactly same fingerprints, exactly the same eye color, exactly the same color of skin. God doesn't do that. God creates diversity, but does not eliminate unity. We're all one in our diverse nature, you see.
Speaker 1:Ooh, that is amazing. I don't even have to ask you that the other question, because you just covered that one. But here's the thing though we open ourselves up to be more connected to other beings and I know that I'm an amazing empath and I feel everything Many of the readers of Data Magazine they feel everything. What happens when you are so connected and so empathetic towards whatever is happening in the world that you're feeling all the pain that comes through the negative stuff? How do you keep your boundaries, how do you keep yourself sane so that you do not feel helpless and you can actually do something about it?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you a personal story and then I'll answer the question. I was visiting a number of years ago. I was visiting somewhere in the hospital. They were experiencing the condition called cancer, and so they were in what is called the cancer ward. I was at Kaiser Hospital up on Sunset Boulevard here in Los Angeles, and so I was visiting the woman and I prayed for her and my heart was really open. I was really empathetic, and many people in that particular part of the hospital were experiencing cancer. So as I was leaving the hospital and I started taking the elevator, for some reason I was walking down the stairs.
Speaker 2:When I got to Sunset Boulevard, I just felt overcome with everything that I experienced up in the cancer ward. I could feel the sadness, I could feel people wanting to die. They were ready to leave the Padi Temple and I started having suicidal thoughts, and I'll always remember this. I was standing on Sunset Boulevard and I looked to my left and there was a bus coming down the street and I said to myself I could throw myself in front of this bus and I could just end it all. And then I caught myself and I said what am I thinking? I don't want to commit suicide and I realized as an empath I picked up all the emotions from the people in the cancer ward. I quickly came back to myself, took some real deep breaths, felt my connection to the God presence. And I had another experience I won't go into it, I don't want to make the story too long about another individual and I started practicing something called radiation.
Speaker 2:Instead of picking up whatever was going on in a room, I would feel my way into love and joy or peace and I would bring that into the room. I would radiate that. So if I'm about to walk into a meeting, I will feel the feeling of how I want that meeting to go. I want us to be at peace and I'll bring peace to the room. And so instead of picking up vibrations, I radiate vibrations. So that way I'm not just a vacuum cleaner, just sucking up the vibrations of the world by radiating. It gives me like a vibrational armor and I don't pick up everything. I'm not trying to pick up the vibration of people. I don't want to pick up the vibration of the room. I don't want to pick up the vibration of the news I radiate Now in counseling, if I'm counseling somebody and they have difficulty expressing their emotions or what they're trying to say. I will then go into my heart, open myself up and I will feel what they're feeling. I'll let my empathetic gift and then I'll feed it back to them. Oh, you're feeling this, you see, but other than that I'm not allowing myself to be open to everything. I, when I meditate in the morning and go out into the world, I'm radiating peace, I'm radiating joy. So that creates an armor.
Speaker 2:Now, in the old days, people used to practice. They still do. It's still a good practice. You know, before you go out, you sit and you imagine that you're surrounded by white light. Yes, you see, and you feel yourself surrounded by this. It's really not white, it's really like shwap I do sound the fix sometimes. It's like this luminosity, it's all around you and you start to practice being surrounded by this bright luminosity before you leave the house and that gives you a kind of a protection. So you combine that with remembering a moment when you were at peace, remembering a moment when you felt total love, joy. You breathe into it, you exhale it, you radiate it out and you walk into the world radiating that, and it gives you a lot of protection, you see.
Speaker 1:This is an incredible piece of advice and I'm gonna heed to it myself, because whenever I see animals, cats, dogs oh my God, don't get me going I start bowling. So, and it's difficult, but I think, like you said, you can be the light bringer into that room and that's how you can help. If you are letting it all attach to your body and to your soul and then you feel helpless, you're not gonna be able to help the situation and I think, like you said, having this experience of being in a bed, having this armor and radiating this light and just radiating, radiating love, you can do more than just starting to bowl and cry and feel so bad. I mean of course you do.
Speaker 1:But that makes a lot of sense. Well, I'm at the last question because I do know and I'm aware of your voice and I don't wanna stress it out much further, so I'm just gonna give you one last question, which is really related to my podcast, because I do know you have a lot of artists and celebrities and luminaries who you call friends, obviously Oprah, but even a lot of actors who come and filmmakers that come to Agape Services. What do you think is the reason that draws so many Hollywood creatives to Agape and to your teachings?
Speaker 2:You know I feel privileged to in honor that a lot of them are my friends. You know. You look at individuals like Sterling Brown. You look at individuals like Steve Wonder and, as you said, hillary Swank over the years she grew up at Agape and Christine Labigate, who grew up at Agape. There's many. I could go on and on and on and they don't consider themselves like special people, you know.
Speaker 2:But a true artist it lives. A true artist lives on the edge of creativity. There's a creative urgency. They put themselves into a zone in which, if they're playing a character, or if they're singing a song, or if they're involved in some kind of choreography and movement of dance, or even if they're painting or writing a book, they're on the edge of creativity. It's not perfunctionary, you know. It's not just made up, you know it's not what's the word, they're not hacks. You know true artists.
Speaker 2:So I think they feel that when they're at Agape, they feel me being on the edge of being available to the spirit. In that moment. They feel some of the artist that's saying or dance being on the edge of bringing not a perfunctory experience but a moment of giving their all to the presence so that people can be in awe, you see. So I think they see a common, a commonality between us. I'm a spiritual artist, an artist in the moment. I, you know, I'm just on the edge of being available to what needs to be said in that moment, just as you know, like perhaps, like a month ago, you know, stevie was there and he says I was there, he says I feel, I feel like I'm on a same right now. There's so much war going on in the world. I wonder, do you mind? And I said maybe, yeah, right, until Stevie wanted to know, I said, of course have you think about it for a second.
Speaker 2:You know. So he got up at that moment after it wasn't planned, it wasn't a part of the program, wasn't planned. That particular Sunday he got up and sang Love's in Need of Love Today in the band, got the music and hit some backup singers. You know, it was just spontaneous, within a moment. You know, love's in Need of Love Today. He was on the edge, he just felt like he had to sing that song for the world because of the distress that was being caused by war and killing, you see, and then he came back a few weeks later and it was a part of our anniversary and he was the musical inspiration of the day, you know. And even in the middle of the musical inspiration he started playing Giant Steps by John Coltrane, in the middle of his song. You know, it was all spontaneous. You know.
Speaker 2:I think they feel a kinship, you know, with the Agapa International, the way we do things, we're touching into creativity from the spirit, and then they feel that in their craft. So they see, kind of a it's a camaraderie in creativity. There it is, it's a camaraderie in creativity.
Speaker 2:And a lot of them come. You know writers, I see a lot of the stuff coming in movies and programs. You know I can hear the phrases seeping into the scripts and things you know of people who are there in the audience. It's we're influencing in a very beautiful, magnificent and inspirational way. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It is so magical what you do at Agapa and you're magical and you know it's amazing, given your past and your background and your whole journey, your personal journey. I will never forget the opera interview and where you have gone and how, what you've become, which is, like you said, the unfolding right and I think that's the prime example. You know where we're talking about flaws. You know taking it full circle. You know we've all had our done.
Speaker 2:You don't measure yourself by what you have done. Any mistakes you've made. That's not who you are. The mistakes you've made in life is not who you are. Those are the stepping stones along the way to what you're becoming. You see, it's interesting. I was with a young boy.
Speaker 2:He was 20, you know, and some reason that Gandhi and John Lennon came up in the conversation and he started he's 20 years old and he said oh, I don't like Gandhi. He hit his wife and I said oh, hold on, young man, hold on, hold on. Gandhi admitted that when he was a young man he was a chauvinist. You know he was raised by the British Empire. You know he was influenced by that hypermasculinity, domination, colonial mind. I said he grew into the Gandhi that we know, where he attributed his nonviolence to his wife and women. I said do you want to be known for the worst thing you've ever done in your life? I said think of yourself three years ago and he put his hand over his face. He says oh my god, three years ago I was just a wild young kid doing wild and stupid things. I said do you want us to judge you about who you were three years ago or what you've become now and what you're becoming? I said so. You can't talk about John Lennon or Gandhi.
Speaker 2:And one of my favorite statements is every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. That's not to me. That's an old statement. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. So we have to give each other a break. We have to give each other a reasonable doubt that we're all growing, we're all unfolding. I mean, one of the most worst places in the world these days is the internet and social media, because people hate and they tear each other down. They disagree with each other and because they disagree, the other person is called all of these bad names because they have a disagreement. And we have to give each other. We have to have more reverence for each other. Give each other a break, listen to each other Instead of just being right.
Speaker 2:I often say you rather, you want to be real rather than right, and being real is what the capital R, real is spiritual. You want to listen, you want to love each other. No one comes out of the womb a hater. No little infant sitting in their crib hates people because of the color of their skin or where they were born. That's all learned. It's all brainwashed learning, and so we want to. We want to just come back to our real self and we want to be strong enough to love. Love is the strongest power on the planet and if we can be strong enough to love, we can actually shift the trajectory of the world to a golden age, because there's one thing I know for sure Justice without love is called revenge, and revenge will never build a world of kindness and compassion. We have to learn to love, wow.
Speaker 1:That is the perfect ending to this incredible, incredible interview and podcast. Reverend Michael, you have been amazing. What a gift you are. Let me turn this off for you. Let me turn this off real quick so I can say a proper goodbye. But I mean thank you for coming and like, oh, this is going to be amazing. That's all I'm going to say. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Heart of Show Business. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can also subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast player. If you have any questions or comments or feedback for us, you can reach me directly at the heartofshowbusinesscom.