Energy Matters Podcast: Alan Cohen On Spirituality

Today's guest on the "Energy Matters" podcast is Alan Cohen, an incredibly authentic spiritual teacher and author of 24 books. In this insightful talk with David Gandelman, he explains his own personal journey, one which started with Ram Dass, and how to live an authentic spiritual life. He also delves deep into the merit and role of meditation and habitual mindfulness practice to enable a profoundly rewarding and contended life.

Transcript

Hey Insight Timer listeners,

Welcome to another episode of the energy matters podcast and We have a very very special guest for you today the spiritual teacher author and guide Alan Cohen Alan has authored over 24 books Including his best-selling the dragon doesn't live here anymore Deep breath of life and are you as happy as your dog?

I love that little and And he's not also a contributing writer for the New York Times best-selling series chicken soup for the soul and His books have been translated into 24 languages He's been featured on Oprah calm USA Today the Washington Post He's been let's say around for a while and he's got some amazing stories and we started out the podcast with some of those So we're very excited to share this one with you guys.

Hope you enjoy Alan's wisdom as much as we did.

Let's go for it Hey everyone,

Welcome to the energy matters podcast.

I'm here with my co-host as always Cody Edner and Everybody we have a very special guest today Alan Cohen.

Welcome Alan.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you Yeah,

It's good to have you and all the way from the Big Island of Hawaii my old stomping grounds And You you've been teaching for so long if 24 inspirational books written I almost don't know anybody who meditates or or reads spirituality that hasn't heard your name you've been around the spiritual block,

Let's say for a while and You have when I hear you speak Alan There's just it's just wisdom and this purity to it that you rarely find and I love how you you teach through stories And sometimes I wonder is Alan just sitting in a cabin in Hawaii reading all of these incredible books like Joseph Campbell and then like the stories come through is that all experience can we start with How did you come into a place of just allowing all that wisdom to come through?

Was it a struggle did it take a while?

Did you sit in a cabin?

How did you come about your spiritual path and then begin to express that into the world?

It was the easiest thing I've ever done It took no training.

No struggle.

It just happened I have to say though that when I was first coming it came from spiritual path wrong.

God's was my mentor.

Mm-hmm Oh,

Wow,

No about and I studied very closely with him for many years and his style really influenced me because he tells lots of funny and touching and sometimes self-replacing stories and So I had a like one of the best role models that could be so when I started teaching I I didn't try to copy him But I tried to use the essence of what he did in my own purposes and it just seems very natural and it works and where?

Did you meet him?

You drugs Were around at that time but but it was the 60s and 70s And so there's a lot of this patient and I participated in hallucinogenics Not the thrill or rush of party that at all I used to go and meditate by myself,

But I was sincerely interested in exploring of dimensions besides one of people the only one and So when I took LSD and other interesting things,

I would have these very mystical experiences I would I would have these transcendental healing experiences that Changed my life infinitely and so in at that moment Rondas was a bridge between the world of psychedelics and Spirituality so through him I got into yoga and meditation healing and prayer and of course,

You know at some point I let go of the drugs.

I was not say But he was he was the transitional element like the Sherpa.

It's a next level Wow Hey,

Can we just ask what what kind of drugs were you doing?

Just LSD and mushrooms or yeah I just LSD and mushrooms and pot that was that was basically I don't ever try anything really weird And then and then there came like a certain point where you realize like I don't need these substances anymore to get that Yeah,

Yeah,

I had some great experience.

I always had positive experiences.

I never had a bad trip moments,

But and then as I started I met another teacher named Hilda Charlton that Rondas also studied within New York and through practicing meditation and prayer and yoga and calm the yoga I got lighter and lighter and lighter and after a while the drug seemed heavier and heavier and heavier and At one point the voice said that's it You know,

You don't need this anymore And I just it's a natural letting go and the Smith the skin fell off the snake and I was not the next thing How old are you when that happened?

I was just mid 20s Or actually what I wanted to ask is Because you just said you kind of went into the drugs to For expanded dimensions and maybe a foundation of interest in spirituality When did that start went like for for me?

I was about 14 when I really kind of awoke to spiritual dimensions I think David was a teenager and I'm wondering like when did that maybe first inklings of awakening happen for you?

Well,

It's always been an element,

But I'll tell you two moments that were pivotal for me When I was I don't know five six or seven.

I had a dream and I'm not you guys old enough.

Remember howdy duty.

Do you remember how did you know?

By three rebrands I must say Well,

How did you do is a popular kids show on that day and Anyway,

I had a dream and then this dream I looked under my bed Which is often a scary place for kids,

But I looked under my bed and and there was like a Like a room for lack of a better word we've had which had illuminated pictures of Mystical people I don't know how they work But one of them was clarabelle who is the clown on howdy duty?

And I don't know how he got in there but The whole experience was about seeing into another dimension.

Like I really felt like I was Seeing beyond this world through these images of cartoon images of of some other world and that was I that was pivotal for me.

It was like You know you go up in the world and you get mucked up in the thickness and heaviness of the world And I think that was spirit's way of showing me at the age of five that you know there's still a connection to this other portal and Even though you may go through some weird experiences.

It's there Like you know,

You're not totally lost And then When I was 14,

I had just finished my bar mitzvah And I swore I would never go to a temple again But the next year I received and when I was 14,

I received an invitation on a postcard from the temple Saying there was a youth branch and I was invited and fellas There was no reason on the planet.

I would ever do that like my intellect said this is the most ridiculous thing But something inside me said just go and I was just listening to bill bennett's interview with you guys.

Oh,

Yeah Fabulous fabulous with a great book a great interview a great movie good interview Anyway,

Something said just go to this branch and I went to this branch And there was a young rabbi there Who was the youth director?

And he gave An impassioned speech about love and healing and god it was so sincere and so authentic and so from the start That it won me like this was the first guy I ever met who I Healed relationship with god And so I joined the youth group and I became the president and he became my big brother as the president And he became my big brother like for seven years and he exerted this amazing Lee positive loving influence on me at a pivotal time I was living in a horrible section of it and he he was like my And I've got connection from why sorry guys,

Okay,

That's right it goes in and outside like that um But he was he was like a guiding light like a saving grace that guided me through my turbulent teen years And set my foundation on a healthy spiritual path.

I gave up Judaism after a while when I started taking drugs,

But that's another story But but you know You could see how each of these teachers and teachers showed up at the most precious pregnant pivotal time And I had grace and my life has been so filled with grace that I can't even explain and those were several forms of grace I did not have that experience after my bar mitzvah I took that money and bought a computer of course you would of course Very practical thing to do What inspires you now alan I mean Uh after writing all these books and teaching for so many years,

Do you still wake up every morning just going?

Yeah,

I'm still inspired or what is it that kind of?

Essentially gets you up in the morning gets you excited every day.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Good question.

Um Well,

Literally my dogs get me up We have five dogs and they went into my bed and started kissing me which is the best way to wake up in the world Actually,

So I get up for them and I have a lovely partner that we have a great relationship and Nature inspires me live in a beautiful nature spot,

But i'll tell you more fundamentally fellas Kindness Inspires me You know you you and I have all been around the scourge of bad block quite a bit We've seen all the out there stuff and all the methods and all that I think and and I read a quote by abraham joshua heshel great Theologian he said When I was a young man I was inspired by people who were clever Now that i'm an old man I'm inspired by people who are kind Loves me that's When I see people Come from the heart and serving and being kind and it's like okay,

That's what we're so that's what inspired me Because it's seen as a lot of times kindness is seen as a weakness Yeah,

Yeah,

Not to me.

Yeah,

It is for lots of people but um You know,

I just finished a book called the down made easy And allowed to say that true leaders lead with humility and kindness everything else is ego Um,

I'm just taking it in before I ask another question I have all these questions right now for you alan.

I'm like,

I don't even want to ask them.

I just want to Ask what you're up to and what inspires you Um,

One of the things I I do want to ask about though is a course in miracles because you you you have a course On a course in miracles a course about the course and I have Picked up a course of miracles over the years many times and it's For me what I found and for those listening if you don't know what it is Um,

Maybe alan you could share with us in a moment,

But every time I picked it up alan i've read like a page or two And like that's enough for like a year And it's a quite a big a big book Can you just kind of go over for our audience a bit what the course in miracles?

Is and kind of what angles are and what is the course in miracles?

Is and kind of what angle you teach from about it and kind of how you help people understand it The course is a rare and magnificent spiritual document that was channeled back in the 70s by a resistant psychologist It's written in the voice of jesus christ,

Although it's not the religious jesus.

It's a spiritual jesus and this particular channel was a cynical atheist jewish psychologist who was the most unlikely candidate But you know in retrospect we realized she had a sole contract Didn't she kind of never truly believe it quite just just kind of came through and it happened and She never could like totally Sell her own books She said strange strange things she said I know it's true I just don't believe it.

Yeah And she didn't practice it like other people do but her role was describe it what she fulfilled Wow,

Yeah I probably would have ended up an atheist skeptical psychologist like that if I hadn't moved to hawaii Jewish east coast you would have been a philosopher Maybe a skeptical philosopher.

That's right.

That's right And so can you give us a bit of that teaching of it alan?

Yeah,

Well the book the book came over seven years and um It ended up being a text a workbook and a manual for teachers and since It says basically that every moment of our life thought word and deed is a choice between fear and love And fear will never take us where we want to go and love will always take us want to go where we want to go And there's a line in the text that says only the creations of light are real Everything else is your own nightmare So of course does through 365 lessons one for each day of the year is it methodically brilliantly deconstructs our belief system that that separate us from wisdom and love And it shows us the folly of the ego And gradually inserts the wisdom of the spirit So gradually we shift our faith from fear to love from ego to spirit And it's a steep path because it really confronts the ego And it tells us that many of the things we believe are just not so and that's why we suffer So it does take determination.

It does take dedication But if you can play with it for long enough,

You know,

You get it You know in in those types of teachings alan,

Um love is kind of a sticky word It's probably one of the more loaded words we have with connotations Yeah,

And um,

So many times the the question Is just for for many people is well,

What is love because i've been hurt by love I've been hurt by love people have used love to manipulate me and to control me but when we speak of spiritual love,

How would you or the love that is Uh,

You know on that path,

How would you articulate that or describe that?

Well,

It's a great question cody because most of the time we say I love and it's an ego love.

It's a selfish love It's a narcissistic love And this is why there's so many divorces because people think they're in love and they're not So let's not be programmed.

Isn't it?

I actually had a question about that for a week.

Yeah,

But anyway,

Um You know when i'm in love I feel like i'm home And I feel like all my needs are met from the inside out And i'm not looking to anyone else for validation or affirmation or I don't see myself as a black hole that needs to be filled in I see myself as a light that needs to be shined so You know,

It is a big load of word as far as I can tell love is the essence of who we are It's what we're doing here.

It's the only thing that makes our life worthwhile And there's a place inside of each of us that really knows what love is And when we drop into it,

We know it's real And until then that's all we're searching for Uh,

Beautiful and I like the way you just said when you're in love because When people use that phrase or every time i've ever heard that phrase it always means with something else But when you said it,

I just realized you meant a space or a connection you have in yourself when you're in that love And that's the thing we're looking for.

Yeah,

It's a state of consciousness when you when you see through the eyes of love everything is lovable When you see through the fear everything is scary So,

You know we all flip back and back and forth many times today between the vision the lens of love and the lens of fear and that's That's what the spiritual path is and So alan for those listening who maybe are like well There's a lot of times throughout the day where I feel everything but love Frustration or anger depression Different forms of pain.

How do I use the course of miracle teachings or or alan's teachings to Start to shift that energy so to shift out of that consciousness Well,

The first thing to notice is that you don't feel good When you're angry or afraid or resentful you start to contract and it's like a bad bad bad bad feeling And you have to start to contract And you have to start to feel good And you have to admit That what you're doing in this current moment is not working Until you get to the point we could say I don't feel good.

I want something else You're just going to go in circles So the second step would be to say well,

I do this in my coaching with what my clients all time I say,

What does the voice of fear say to you?

And I say what my alternative over the voice of love say even if you could just have a little thread of connections in the voice Of love or that say And they tell me And ask me now which feels better So then I would work with them to ask them What can you do in your own consciousness through activity?

That can help you amplify that experience of love and decrease the experience of fear and each of us has something we know how to do That lifts us it could be medicine Yoga playing the dog or walking in the woods with a guitar But whatever you do That Revivation even the least Is bringing you closer to love so i'm a very simple teacher,

You know,

I'm not telling people go to himalayas like pick up your guitar,

You know I tell people I don't tell people go to the himalayas.

I just pick up your guitar writing a journal Go out to dinner with a friend.

You know what nurtures your soul and when your soul is nurtured you reestablish your connection to spirit It's pretty simple as far as I can tell but we got to practice You had a practice.

Well,

I did go to the himalayas and uh,

It didn't work A little bit it got me going it got me going.

Let's hear what happened.

I know you're interviewing me,

But I want to hear what Experience me and what what shifted for you?

Yeah,

So I went I lived there for a year about a year in an ashram And uh practicing vedanta and different forms of yoga And uh drinking mango lassies and talking highfalutin philosophy with other travelers All of that good jazz.

Um,

And I actually would carry I was guru obsessed when I was like 23 And when I was an idiot,

So I literally had an entire like stack almost like of like playing cards of gurus In my pocket.

I would walk around with them like neem curly baba Shiva nanda yoga nanda mukta nanda You know named it ananda.

I had that ananda in my pocket and uh,

I was just yeah obsessed with masters and gurus and Hiking the himalayas to meet them and so I think what happened,

You know where I grew from that was I realized well,

I'm giving all my power energy away to these guys who always tend to have a beer or a drink That's kind of weird that they're all kind of uncommon for most of them that they all have my answers and then i'm like Not good enough.

I don't know enough yet.

Um,

I'll i'll never be like them.

I have to sit at their feet And I guess I think I honestly just over time gradually grew out of it.

It wasn't like one moment It was just like over time.

I realized as I started to grow up I started to like I realized oh,

I have more and more of my own answers and so I kind of developed uh,

And put the playing cards away So and I went to a white Yeah,

Like a Kind of felt like a natural evolution So not everyone obviously needs to go do that.

I mean that kind of the beetles went there And then I was like,

Oh my god,

I'm going to go do that I lived one ashram down from where the beetles used to live But I didn't write any good music at the time or since then forever forever But yeah Well,

That's why guru is still g or u That's right That um,

I heard you once say that mike meyers stole that from you for his movie the The love guru but that you saw from someone else I figured I didn't even think of it.

He also has another one where he would say intimacy into me.

I see Yeah,

Yeah,

That's a good stuff,

Too So on that note of like the whole guru thing and the kind of i'm sure there are a lot of people who see You as their guru and they say allen cone is my guru He has all my answers and i'm going to listen to the whole thing Podcast until he gives them to me.

Yeah,

But uh more serious note How do you take that kind of attention and how do you uh,

Yeah?

What do you do with that and and how do you point people back to themselves?

I I I accept none of it and put it all back on the client for the student.

Um when I first Started having my books come out.

I started to think about what I was going to do And um when I first started having my books come out I started getting letters like that And I also got soulmate letters.

You can't imagine the number of women When they were to marry a gentle jewish office in hawaii they Take a number after a while Um,

And and what happened was at first I was um attracted to it and I would um I would engage with these people communicate with them And then something would always happen without fail At some point they would get angry with me And they would say you're not who you said you were And I'd say well,

I never said I was that you made up a story about me And I realized that whenever anybody gave their power to me It was dangerous for them And it was dangerous for me And then you had a quote said,

Um It only takes a short fall for a halo to become a noose Wow And I said that's it i'm out of here for a halo to become a noose.

I like that And uh,

You know,

I've seen too many leaders fall under ego Of accepting that kind of adoration And so I I have none of it It's like a hey,

Maybe I am perfectly enlightened what you know Yeah,

It seems to be a learning curve though as a teacher because it it is nice to get validated and recognized But you do have to kind of grow out of it.

I think we all are Yeah Yeah,

Absolutely,

Um And then i'm sure on the other end of it too alan criticism Um,

Uh people maybe not liking your message or especially with something like course and miracles where if it does have a bit of christian Undertone to it.

So i'm sure people upset some people Yeah,

I've gotten um Better at discerning between accurate criticism ego-based criticism Like I remember once I taught it on meg institute years ago and And it was a weekend retreat and afterward this lady sent me a long letter with all the things I did wrong like And I read I thought could I really have messed up So many different ways and I realized she was just on it,

You know,

And I I didn't respond.

She was just stuck in ego and then you know like a year later I had a book come out that was successful and I kind of pumped it up in my newsletter And this fellow uh sent me an email saying,

You know,

I really like your work,

But it sounded like you were kind of self What's the word you're patting yourself on the back quite a bit in that newsletter?

And I realized he was right,

You know,

This was this was healthy criticism so um And I still don't like it if anybody says anything bad about me like if I get a bad view or I got yeah,

You know Yeah,

But those people are not conscious at all.

Anyway,

So I don't take this Their consciousness is below yours They should meet somebody else anyway I'm just kidding um I'm getting better and better at kind of feeling on where the person is coming from and trying to criticize mom for society And then I asked spirit the question miracle says if you're not sure what to do Ask spirit and say Please tell me the truth about this You know,

What am I to do about this and i'm getting better at asking spirit and usually spirit will tell me now This is not valid.

This is and that seems to work for me So you almost like intuitively look at each criticism and just See if read it a little bit.

Yeah like that and I guess there is there is a difference in the energy of Through ego,

It's probably more like an attack versus true criticism is more like feedback,

Right?

You can just go oh and think about it and not feel that Yeah,

That kind of charge Like thank you,

You know,

Usually somebody with a healthy criticism will say well,

I really like your work and You know,

So they're healthy enough to sandwich their negative feedback With some support and that to me that feels like a healthy form of communication They're not tweeting at you sad Somebody somebody wrote about my course of miracles looking at it.

Obviously satan had inspired this book.

So So that's your statement Wow,

Wow,

Wow I heard you also alan talk about um,

What you call like reality.

I think it was reality bubbles Yeah,

And you give this kind of metaphor.

It's i'm a trekkie So you kind of use my favorite metaphor of the holodeck Can you explain a little bit to us about that metaphor and what you mean by our own reality bubbles?

Well,

That's a great question,

Isn't it?

Um People say you create your own reality which is a half truth because Reality has already been created nice quite nicely.

Thank you very much and god doesn't need to help to create it You know reality is what it is.

What we do do is we create our own experience of reality by the thoughts we think and the vision we use so You may say there's one thing called reality on planet earth,

But really there's seven billion different realities some of which overlap so It's possible for many people To be agreeing to one reality such as an economic reality But if you choose not to join that reality you have the power to create an entirely different reality That confirms itself in your experience an example.

I don't know if you saw the story but it was the dregs of the recession post 2008 and Um,

I ran it to my friend as a realtor and at that time real estate was in a toilet like,

You know half the realtors in maui were Letting go of their licenses because nothing was moving.

They were surface factors On the side surface And um massaging all the other realtors who lost their jobs Um,

Uh Oh,

You froze for a moment you froze there you sold the 20 million dollar beach from the state all the 23 million dollar beat.

Oh,

Sorry.

I know it goes again side over And my friend said,

Um,

I just sold a 23 million dollar beach front estate They said how did you do that?

She said well,

I knew a guy wanted to sell it I thought this guy might want to buy and put their hands together and they made the deal and to me There were 23 million dollar estates going around even while most people were struggling and almost starving financially But she lived in this consciousness of enoughness and abundance and people wanting to make deals and available deals and availability And she thrived Through that recession like no one else did Now she was subject to the same economic factors that everyone else was the same stock market crashed and blah blah blah blah But she was not willing to join that in that agreement That there's lack and so she proved it by demonstrating abundance in her world and the world of people she touched So so it's like and i've heard you say it's like it's not there's not one economy,

Right?

Yeah there's Everyone's each almost psychological economy Yeah,

There's always people who thrive in horrible economy and there's always people who tank in a great economy So you can't blame the economy on your economic situation You have to look only to your own consciousness to the only source of our experience.

It's an inside out job Yeah,

It's so easy to match the energy of like that mass hysteria or mass fear Hold on i'm going to turn fox news off.

Hold on So cody and I we spend a lot of our time,

Uh,

Well twiddling our thumbs But other than that,

We also spend a lot of our time teaching about uh intuitive tools meditation tools and so we we kind of work in that realm of energy work a lot and We wanted to know at least I want to know like what your experience with kind of the intuitive space is that energy awareness space and do you Teach your students clients how to open up to that space and how do you go about that?

Yeah,

Big time.

Thank you Uh,

I always say that meditation and prayer or some spiritual practice like yogurt tai chi those all are beautifully designed to line this up and achieve what abraham would call vibrational resonance with higher power So those official things always work and you know Whatever form works for each of us is appropriate because the million forms of meditation each of them work because it works for you however,

Um,

I also tell people that simply Doing anything that increases your joy is the form of prayer And so you may not want to be a meditator,

But you may like to dance you know like to do art So I encourage people to relax and play And step back from anything that feels like a struggle even momentarily And ask the voice of joy where we do have me go at this moment of this day And when you can really do that,

That's that's the space to miracles And the seven of course of miracles that all that's required for a miracle Is a tiny willingness So if you could just step away from a computer and say i'm fried this isn't working I'm going to take a walk in the park That little willingness starts to open you the vortex will say And suddenly you become available to intuitive guidance that you would not have been available to if you're busy hacking away At trying to get your website done.

Maybe you know come back tomorrow and do the website But I tell my students if it's a struggle,

It's not it that struggle is not required by god.

It's the ego's play thing A struggle not god So stepping out of that resistance kind of opens that intuitive space Like that and I know that you're both into mediumship and healing and There's something I always tell my clients who've lost a loved one.

I have a radio show people call into it and coach a lot of people outside the show And a lot of them say i've lost this loved one and I you know this already,

But maybe already I've lost a loved one and um i'm grieving And how i'm asking for guidance and i'm looking for signs and i'm not getting anything and are they really here and are they gone forever?

And I say,

You know that grieving And upset and regret and density and guilt they're all very heavy vibrations and When you're stuck is like there was one um star trek episode where one of the one of the officers was stuck in this dense vibrational field and Some helper couldn't get to him because he had this dark force field around him.

I couldn't see him Yeah,

Yeah,

He was like blind.

He was blinded to them and they were blinded to him.

Yes.

Yeah around him.

Yeah And I say,

You know people in spirit,

Um functions a very light vibration And In that I guess So if you really want to connect you have to do something to get vibration a little bit Right when you said that the vibration of our zoom connection You talk about spirit,

It's just like the hawaiian akua.

Yeah For us one more time.

Yeah People in spirit function is very pure to find such a level And they they could be trying to get through to you But if you're busy twirling around this very dense vortex,

You're not going to see the message So I say,

You know,

You're not going to see the message Breathe as much as you need to but as soon as you can Re-instill your joy voice You know anything you can do to raise your vibration Will make you more accessible to them and them to you and they can actually have conversations with him or they come to you and breathe visions or whatever And that's the way to reconnect with some of the spirit is by matching their energy rather than expecting them to come down with the dense vibration They're having a conversation with you They're happy to be out of the density of earth.

I assure you they don't want to get they don't want to come back And be quicker than me.

So you might have to make the effort to meet them where they stand Yeah,

I like and where you put that and in mediumship we teach a similar thing You kind of have to meet in the middle,

Right?

They can't come all the way down to the physical vibration that we live in and You know,

We have to kind of go up Kind of halfway so to speak but somewhere to a higher frequency You know alan you've been doing this so long you have seen Kind of the evolution of an awakening that's happening,

You know I mean I I kind of have a little bit too.

I started in 1984 and um,

You know when I started teaching I think I started teaching in the later 80s,

But You know people would come in and this idea of meditation or energy was like very new to them And you know,

I might ask a group of people how many of you have heard of being grounded and maybe nobody or one person Now,

Of course everybody says oh,

Yeah,

I know that let's get to the real stuff type thing,

You know,

It's like Some of these very simple foundational Um things seem to get lost very often in this seeking for like higher energy levels or enlightenment and and of course my philosophy is it's more about getting back into ourselves and Um,

Not ascending but descending in a way into the reality of what we're creating in the world um But what would your advice be for someone?

You know kind of just opening up and all these things are out there to do How does someone kind of find a good focal point a good starting point?

And an easy kind of move step by step forward in something,

You know in some awareness raising thing Well,

It's unique to each person because we all have our own unique path and so You know,

I would ask the clients what works for you You know,

What what do you feel joined to do?

And they might say oh I have these three teachers and I'm not sure which one is better I'll say which one resonates.

It's just you know,

I say it's a lot simpler than you think it is Like who speaks to your heart?

Who works for you,

You know If you can just peel away all this intellectual stuff What would you like to do of the three meetings you've been invited to what do you feel like going to?

And in that moment,

I'm actually training them to exercise their intuition Which will take you to the right teacher who will train them to exercise intuition and one thing one thing the next so so,

Um,

You know you have to You have to trust your gut.

Um,

Uh good to say the german philosophy said When you finally trust yourself You will know how to live I love that.

I like that.

That's as good a beginning spiritual path as it is the end of the spiritual path And there's a there's another quote alan that I heard you say Um,

Well,

It was a story that someone asked a shaman.

How can I be more like you?

How does it go?

Yeah,

A friend was studying with shaman.

She said how can I be more like you he says Um,

The way to be more like me is to be more like you That's it.

Yeah,

In other words,

I I i'm not teaching you to copy me.

I'm teaching you to to express yourself So you're the worst teachers in coca-cate dependence They they they weaken people by making them feel they need the teacher The best teachers equal cape independence And they want the students to grow their own wings to fly out of the nest and find a guru with them And that's how I evaluate a good teaching from a bad one I love that Um,

And so you still work one-on-one with clients that and council It's amazing.

Is there a theme or a couple themes that you notice that have been canceled?

Playing out with your clients that they've been working on that you've been helping them with is there something kind of been coming through lately?

Well,

Universally,

It seems like self-love and self-acceptance.

Oh,

We got a frozen moment frozen yogurt moment We'll let you know when when we can hear you again because it's Oh,

Uh,

Let's wait a moment.

It'll the uh The cloud will pass.

I'm back.

There we go.

You're back.

You're back Um a lot of the people I coach doubt themselves and they want to be a healer or a stockbroker or anything And I just say,

You know,

What would you be doing if we really believed in yourself?

And I validate them and I say,

You know The world is such a is it such a weird condition these days that anybody?

Was offering any kind of healing service sincerely?

Is needed And will serve And will succeed so I said don't wait until you're a perfect teacher to teach because you there's no teacher that's perfect You become more and more perfect by practicing Starting right where you are And that seems to give people a lot of confidence and I do a life coach training And most of the students they have an intake interview And I asked them what is your fear and they say well who am I to coach?

You know,

Why would anybody pay me to coach?

I'm still working on my own stuff.

I I have my own shadow self And I say that does not matter I say do not use that as an excuse not to step forward everybody Has a shadow self and I tell them stories about the top gurus and teachers and authors and masters and motivational speakers But I see in green rooms at lectures And I see their dysfunctions And crew ups and their egotisticalness and their hypocrisy And i'm not saying this to put them down.

I'm saying that we all have this dark side And we all have this dark side And the people who move ahead even with the dark side have a way of helping Hopefully they're still working on the dark dark side as they're progressing But if you wait until you're perfect,

You're never going to do it.

So so just start if you're sincere Spirit will sort everything out for you.

You know,

The law of attraction will will line things up for you As long as you come from that sincerity Yeah,

So just tell us which ones are our own Are the real dark ones in the green room?

But you know even even the dark ones help you know,

Because I see people who have major egos Not that we don't have major egos,

But but you know in their moments of clarity and purpose and intention They really help people And lots of times it's been their own ego that has motivated him to grow And discover where the light is and when they pass with the light pass the light along then they're in integrity So,

You know,

We can't fault anybody for having an ego because we all do so We just have to take the best and leave the rest Right take the best and leave the rest And we're all human.

I mean,

I think that's what that comes down to and There's there can be this kind of imagination Which is what puts you on a pedestal and then gets mad at you if you're not doing it right?

What puts you on a pedestal and then gets mad at you is that somehow we rise above that and we become perfect if we say we're spiritual and I think coming to a place to be able to accept our humanity And our faults and create positivity regardless of that is the whole point anyway,

So Beautifully stated.

Yeah,

We're all abysmally human and we're all All fine and those two run side by side and the more we can do to amplify the divine And actually work the human into it,

You know,

Like even like even our human someone once said what's in the way is the way and so When we start to address our human flaws and a either correct them or become to peace with them Then we're really making spiritual progress far more than just meditating and we've just seen jesus when all you've seen is your own vision and not really jesus so You know,

It has to be worked from the ground up.

We have to integrate heaven and earth.

That's our game these days Can I ask you alan about uh writing?

So first of all,

How uh,

Did you write 24 books?

Maybe the first question and the second is When you when you sit down to create content to to write something Do you have a process is it like this systematic way that you write a book and and tap into that inspiration?

Or is it different every time?

Um,

What does that process look like?

Um,

It's a prayer I say prayer before and something like I invite the highest source To deliver the highest material through the purest channel To the audience that can most benefit to bring the blessing to the world and to support me in the process That's my general prayer And then I open and it floods.

I don't consider myself an author.

I consider myself recording secretary And I believe that the book is already written in spirit And it's my job to be as pure channel as I can to bring that book to earth And I think that's the highest purpose for the most people so it's more like an editing Massaging process than a creation process It's a co-creation spirit is using my personality in my repertoire To send good ideas and I work them into my belief system and send it out to the world to co-creation It almost sounds like a conversation with god Yeah,

I I don't hear specific voices but I get ideas and um You know like it's like one seed idea drops into my brain and then it's my job to flesh it out in an interesting way as possible Hmm and do you have more coming?

Endless infinite And your publisher will be happy about to hear that yeah Yeah So alan in all of these different books and teachings or just in your own philosophy like what would be?

What would be a real simple statement about what you hope to impart to the world has has that grown and changed over the years and Is there different focuses that you've had or has it always been just something in your heart?

That's just core That everything else revolves around is this kind of central energy or idea There's some there's a core idea that love works And that we love each other and love ourselves We're lined up with spirit and everything unfolds naturally from that However,

I've become more and more confident in that and I go to deeper and more subtle levels of it And I find new ways to say it and You know,

There's nothing new about my message,

But I think i'm becoming more sophisticated shall we say in delivering it?

And finding new and interesting ways to say it so that you know more people get it.

I think i'm I'm able to read the masses more than I used to I used to write more for more of an esoteric crowd But as I become grounded in my own life,

I'm finding better ways to say it so more people will receive it I love that Oh Do you uh,

Do you have a specific meditation practice or spiritual practice that you do every day?

Yeah,

I um it varies I I absorb light I sit and I imagine that there's a healing energy that wants to come to me I do my best to open my pores and receive it And at other times I visualize that light is being inside me wanting to get out and so Depends on the kind of mood that i'm in In or out You know,

They both work.

I think the inside out really is the truth closer to the truth But when I don't feel it's in me,

Then it's appropriate to invite it to come in And sometimes I do mantra like omani padmi home or somewhere gati gati pari gati pari Some gati bodhisthaha,

You know some ancient mantras.

So I find that sometimes uh,

A mantra will kind of I have a very busy mind And so that focus on a mantra Uh,

Really brings my mind to one point and it takes all the distracting thoughts away Is your I think your mind is busy because you're such a creator and there's always that next No,

I think it's because of changes in the erotic juan.

I just Just Yeah,

I know exactly what that's like it was from the bar mitzvah ever since then You get initiated into it Yeah Will my grandfather be very happy when he sees someone named alan cohen Podcast.

Oh my god.

Wonderful.

He looks like a rabbi Yeah,

Thank you,

Thank you,

Um amazing alan you're so genuine and and uh love your message um cody do you have any other questions for alan before we let him off into the Infinity of his creation for august I don't thank you so much for being here alan that was just enlightening and I do I love the authenticity and just the natural way that you can speak about this and and that Is the thing I like to see in spirituality because it's it is I don't want to use the word masses It's just it's in everybody and we have to speak about it in a way that can connect with everybody.

I think too Yeah,

You know really have it have an impact And alan,

Um for all those watching listening if they want to find more of your work I know you have a couple of courses coming up,

Uh in september and december.

Can you just tell them tell us a little bit about them?

I do a life coach training because it's very intensive intimate six month program for people who want to come Want to become professional life coaches or do it more casually.

It's a very uh transformation program for coaches and clients And then in december i'm doing a new program called transformer training for people who would like to be leaders healers and teachers And it's for people who have a sense that they have something to offer But have not yet developed the confidence or the tools to put it out there So this is inviting people to step into the shoes of their destiny And walk the path of the transformational agent on the planet earth.

So there'll be five day retreat in hawaii this december And all this is on my website alancohen.

Com and I would welcome anybody who's listening to our show To join me either of both of those programs wonderful.

Yes,

And you can find Alan's books on amazon i'm sure and everywhere else.

They're fantastic So alan,

Thank you so much for your light for your wisdom for your time.

We really really appreciate it and uh,

Mahalo for being here And you guys I have to say you guys are doing great things,

Too I was listening to some of the podcasts beforehand.

That's really High caliber authentic from the hard practical material.

So thank you Thank you for blessing so many people here good work.

Thank you.

Thank you so much And thank you everyone for listening to energy matters.

We will see you next time.

That's alan cohen And uh,

My brother's name is Alan That's right.

Thanks alan.

I know I want I wanted to try to keep it into that hour.

Yeah,

I kind of Agreed on don't take you too much over.

You have a book to write Yeah,

I always do.

That's non-junk talk Were you a writer like before you got kind of in the spiritual were you just interested in writing as a young child?

Uh,

No,

Not at all.

Um I was actually on the spiritual path for eight or ten years And you guys got another minute for a really good story.

Yeah,

Definitely.

So I was um renting a room in the french house And she went to see a psychic being vince ragone and She came back and he said She said he I didn't tell me a name,

But he said tell alan to write Really?

Oh wow And I you know when she said it to me and nothing to me like I I wasn't interested in writing the least And then I don't know six months later.

I woke up one morning And his voice said right and I didn't want to write but I I did And I started just I didn't know I was writing a book.

I was just Um expressing this for fun.

Wow,

And the process took me over And I did nothing but write for many hours A day for like six months or nine months.

Wow And the book came out.

I knew it was a book at some point and it was called the dragon doesn't live anymore And it was a series of poetic essays And I showed it to my friend who had a psychic reading.

She said oh,

Let me play the tape It said take from my psychic reading And she played the tape for me and she hadn't told me But in the reading he said tell alan to write I think a book of poetic essays would be very good Whoa my gosh And so he was all over it before I I really I I swear guys had no inkling of attention to write it It was a date with destiny That is so so cool That is well,

That's what me and cody do during our daytime hours We work one-on-one with clients do some intuitive reading.

He always does You know when I real quick story,

Too,

Uh when I lived in india I went to what was called a naughty grouha Or uh,

They call him a palm leaf reader and someone that I had known who lived in india for years Like you got to go see this guy.

He's the real deal had to make an appointment three months in advance and uh He started reading my chart or whatever.

I don't even know what he had.

I don't know what he had and he said oh you're Going to move to a place like australia and you're going to work on the farm and you're going to be a psychic and the teacher And writing some books and I was like I had already purchased my ticket to move to hawaii to go to the intuitive training school and I did work When I got there I lived and worked on a farm for the first four months to kind of just get grounded get by Uh,

And it all just kind of was coming true I was like,

Thank you dude in india for just validating that path.

Yeah,

That's amazing Yeah,

That's great.

Yeah,

It's it's The question miracle says that the script is already written So the best things that have happened to me have truly been unplanned there were dates for destiny and you know I've ended up teaching in japan quite a bit and moving to hawaii And it was a very interesting experience It was all just lined up when i'm almost pregnant it gave birth.

So wow Kind of humbling when you think about that,

Huh?

That is yeah,

That's so cool and Thank you alan We really appreciate your time if I can support you in any way.

Don't hesitate.

Yeah,

Absolutely And can we share that last story?

I didn't stop recording So could we do an after show you want us to cut it where we cut it?

Where we said goodbye?

Whatever you like you're good.

That was a good story And uh,

We'll send you the revenue from the podcast Yeah Cool Thank you You've been listening to the energy matters podcast with cody edner and david gandleman Brought to you by intuitive vision dot net and grounded mind dot com Subscribe to the podcast on itunes stitcher or soundcloud.

Com

Reviews

Fabulous! Muchísimas gracias David, Cody and Alan! 🩷🩷🩷

Wow. What a great interview. I love this podcast. Thank you David and Cody. ❤️❤️❤️

Awesome 😎 I was blessed and blissfully enlightened 😇
Namaste

Wow!! Thank you for this interviewing!

Very insightful! Thank you! 💕
I’m also enjoying your ten day meditation course. 🙂

Very interesting. Now I am going to check out “”Energy Matters”. 😀👍

Fantastic, thank you.
Namaste 🙏🏽

I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast, thank you! ❤️🙏🏾

Loved this. Thank you 🙏

Great interview, thank you!

Great interview really enjoy your podcast thanks

Really appreciate t

Wonderful Sunday morning listen

Thank you🙏🧡🍁💫 I enjoyed the talk and Alan’s interesting and awesome spiritual life story. Perfect to Follow the light and choose love🙂

Just amazing. Thank you so much.