Shows
The Confusion ExperimentA 2020 Winter Solstice SpecialThis week, I'm sharing with you the Winter Solstice Special from my other podcast, The Camille Conte Show. It's a lovely hour of music, poetry and history. May you take a moment today to be still, appreciate the beauty of the seasons, the turning of the wheel as the Pagans say, and perform some personal ritual or ceremony that connects you to your Sacred Self. Peace, CC
2020-12-2157 min
The Confusion ExperimentA New Big Beginning is Upon Us - Episode 30We've got a new moon coupled with a full solar eclipse today, yet another celestial event happening in what is being named "A Divine December." But what does it all mean to us as we go about our lives during these times of tremendous Change? I've spent all day steeping myself in the silence so I could feel into what this opportunity is all about. Turns out, it's a gift that we're being given from Life itself. In this episode, I explore the opportunity that is being presented to us this day, this month and how it is that...
2020-12-1420 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Deconstruction of the Old World Order - Episode 29The deconstruction of the old world order. What does that mean for us if we were a part of that order?
How do we handle the complete falling away of the day-to-day structures that governed our sense of self and the life that we live?
How do we handle the assault on our senses as we are bombarded with betrayal, injustice, outrage, death, grief and loss?
When clinging to the old and denial of the new doesn't work, how do we adjust to change we didn't ask for?
How do we...
2020-12-0725 minThe Confusion ExperimentDealing with Change: From Habits to Practices - Episode 28This week's show features the audio from a live stream talk I did Sunday for the Alaska Center for Spiritual Living, my spiritual home in Anchorage. Since we are all going through so much Change right now from significant personal changes as well as societal changes in attitudes, beliefs and values, the topic is ripe for discussion.
I offer some insight about what Change is and how we can look at it from a different perspective and when we do we are able to lighten our emotional relationship to what it is we're going through. Even if i...
2020-08-2431 minThe Confusion ExperimentWhat COVID is Teaching Us - Episode 27There's much being said about COVID19 and on this week's episode I talk about what it's teaching me, you and us. How is it teaching us these lessons? By taking away from us the things we took for granted, the habits that have kept us numb and unconscious, the way of life that has run its course as the new design for living makes its case. The importance of flexibility, the value of contrast, the practice of detachment are all part of life's lesson plan for us.
COVID came shouting into our lives and screamed, "WAKE UP!" W...
2020-08-1724 minThe Confusion ExperimentChaos, Change and COVID - Episode 26Everything is upside down these days and very much like the storm that took down the 300 year old trees here in New Jersey, our lives have been uprooted. In this week's episode we talk honestly about the changes we are going through and the chaos that this massive change has brought with it. But in order to deal with the uncertainty of these times, we must begin to examine how our minds work so we know whether or not they're working for us or against us. Questioning what your mind presents to you as true is key if you...
2020-08-1128 minThe Confusion ExperimentHow to Make a Decision - Episode 25Do you suffer from "decision paralysis?" I have and it's painful. It's that horrible feeling of being stuck, unable to move, afraid to make a choice. It's taken some practice but I have learned how to make decisions in a way that makes me feel better about myself and the decision itself. In fact, I've done so much work around this area of my life I've actually experienced a decision making me! In this week's episode, I talk about the many spokes in the modern day wheel of decision making. They include intuition, the heart and a willingness to...
2020-07-2726 minThe Confusion ExperimentLiving with Uncertainty - Episode 24These are uncertain times. But why has uncertainty gotten such a bad reputation? Well, that's because we have placed a high value on knowing. In fact, we have an obsession with knowing and when we don't know the mind tells us that's not a good thing. However, when we examine this more closely, we can clearly see that's not necessarily true. Turns out, uncertainty is a natural and normal experience in life. It's especially normal when we're dealing with a new way.
This week's episode explores uncertainty from two perspectives: the mind and the heart. We...
2020-07-2027 minThe Confusion ExperimentConfusion as a Strategy - Episode 23Did you know that confusion is intentionally used as a strategy in marketing? It's also used in the work we do as a way to keep our competitors on the defensive, it's used in interpersonal relationships and it's used in politics as a way to keep the masses controlled and in fear. The confusion we experience as a result of a well thought out plan remains as something we personally experience only when it's not challenged. This is where critical thinking comes into play.
In this week's episode, we get real with our own use of confusion...
2020-07-1421 minThe Confusion ExperimentConfusion is a High State of Consciousness - Episode 22Confusion often gets a bad reputation for being a negative experience and is seen as a sign that you're lost or worse, don't know what you're doing or where you're going. But The Confusion Experiment reveals to us that chaos and confusion are actually high states of consciousness when you understand what is actually going on during these times of upheaval.
In this episode we explore the messy, sacredness of confusion as a time of tremendous potency and possibility and why we don't want to rush through such a moment as this though the mind can't wait t...
2020-07-0629 minThe Confusion ExperimentInter-generational Racial Healing with Kokayi Nosakhere - Episode 21Five weeks in to the new show and I sit down with Kokayi Nosakhere who is dedicated to educating us on inter-generational racial trauma that resides in our nervous system. What's fascinating about this theory is that it exists in both the victim and the perpetrator and the steps necessary for this healing to take place. It's a truly engaging and interesting conversation that leaves us all with three steps that we can take right now to begin to not just dismantle the inequality inherent in our society but to rebuild from an agreed upon value: community.
2020-06-3040 minThe Confusion ExperimentHave We Lost Our Minds? - Episode 20Listening on Apple Podcasts? Please rate, review and subscribe and help get the new podcast on Apple's "New & Noteworthy." Thanks so much!
This is the first full length podcast after launching the new show with a three part mini-series called "The Findings," which featured the eighteen nuggets of insight that the experiment revealed. Those episodes are all under 10 minutes so definitely give them a listen.
In today's show, we talk about why losing our minds might actually be a good thing, especially when you open up to the idea that there's a Mind behind your...
2020-06-2228 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #18 Life can be easy.Life does not have to be hard. That’s the old way of living. The old way is, you have to be exhausted by the end of your day to know you put in a good day. Why would we want to exhaust ourselves as a measurement that it was a good, productive, successful day? It’s killing us! Have you noticed? Our tanks are empty.
With this new way emerging through us and as us, we can find ourselves standing on a solid foundation as Change brings the walls tumbling down. That’s the conscious evolutionary moment...
2020-06-2205 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #17 The New Design for Living.The world as we know is collapsing. It’s part of our natural evolution and necessary for what is coming. However, for many it’s terrifying. We’re here inside this time of massive change and people are freaking out. We’re turning around and saying to each other, “Who’s got the instructions? I’m getting fired, this is ending, this is happening; how do I do this? Somebody give me the instructions!”
The problem with the old way is that it doesn’t give you the instructions for the new way because the old way doesn’t even know i...
2020-06-2207 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #16 There's a new measurement of success.Another construct I had to let go of was how I measured success. In radio, success is measured by the size of the audience. It is so important that the hour is divided into quarter hour measurements. The radio station with the biggest audience won and the DJ with the most listeners won and that made the sales people win because then they could raise their prices and make more money. It was the quintessential ripple effect so the pressure to be #1 was pretty intense.
I didn’t realize how influential this deeply seeded training was in my...
2020-06-2205 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #15 Be willing to change.One of the things that happened along the way was that I had to say goodbye to me. As I have been moving through this time of reorganization, I never did so without bringing my radio personality into the mix. I can see now that this was another time in which I spoke about myself in the third person. Meditation revealed to me I had been fighting for “her” place in my new life. It wasn’t until I came back to Anchorage in the summer of 2017 that I understood what was happening.
I was doing some fill-in...
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #14 We've got to do the turnaround.We have to turn away from the world of effects, the headlines, what doesn’t feed us and what makes us heavy, and turn towards what makes us feel better. Here’s what I’ve learned – life is mostly a vibrational thing and it’s pretty awesome. We’re here to feel good. When I look at the headlines, I don’t feel good. So what am I going to do? Am I going to take my precious, creative, never-been-here-before moment and react to something that’s already done? How does my emotional reaction change a headline? Better to ask, “What’s min...
2020-06-2208 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #13 We're afraid to feel.We’re so afraid to feel that we’d rather blame others for our feelings. We’ve been told to numb them, avoid them, project them, to do all kinds of things instead of feel them. But let me tell you, what’s real is that we feel. Clearing stuck energy by giving ourselves permission to feel all the hurt, the anger, the disappointment and everything else that has become, as Eckhart Tolle calls it, a “pain body” is critical to being able to live from our hearts. If your heart is clogged up with unforgiveness, how can your best self em...
2020-06-2203 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #12 We’ve trained to look outside of ourselves.We actually believe that people and things are our source. We’ve come to believe that it’s someone else’s job to satisfy our needs and that always leads to disappointment because it’s built on a false premise that your source is external. For too long we’ve believed that the outer world creates the inner world so we need people to be a certain way and say certain things to make us feel certain ways.
I have actually believed that people make me feel different emotions, and if only they would say something else or if only...
2020-06-2205 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #11 The mind has taken us collectively as far as we can go.Do you know what I’m saying? We’re seeing it in our everyday living. The mind has run its course as the tool for our evolution. It’s not the mind that’s going to take us to the next place. It’s the heart. That’s why I’m so excited that you’re here and you’re reading this. This is about you making the choice to open your heart a little bit more today, tonight and tomorrow. It’s about listening to your heart, getting familiar with its language and trusting its guidance.
Here’s why that’s impo...
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #10 The heart goes by feelings.I’ll give you an example. I have really strong instincts; I’m sure you do, too. Throughout my spiritual journey, using my practices and tools, my intuition has gotten sharper. So when I left Alaska in 2013 and left my home, my career and my life behind, I knew I was ready for something else, something more, something that would take all the different aspects of who I was and bring them together, unified. I didn’t know what it was I was ready for, but I had a feeling it would find me and I would recognize it. I trus...
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #9 The heart is more like a GPSA GPS doesn’t give you every direction all at once before you leave the driveway; you’d never get anywhere. Once you identify where it is you want to go, the GPS figures out the “how” and tells you one direction at a time and you trust it to get you where you’ve told it you want to go.
That’s exactly how the heart works. The instructions from the heart come after you leap through instinct and intuition, the GPS of the heart. If your heart is telling you to do something, believe that it’s important...
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #8 The mind needs to know.We have an obsession with knowing. Vision boards, goals, five year plans, day planners, time management, to-do lists, all so that you know what you’re doing, where you’re going, and how you’ll get there. This obsession with knowing places a high value on the mind, so much so that I can now see that sometimes when I thought I was using my mind, my mind was really using me!
In addition, the mind doesn’t like the way the heart works. The mind wants to determine a new moment based on what’s already familiar...
2020-06-2208 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #7 We are not our thoughts.For many weeks in the beginning of this experiment, I was tumbling and twisting and rolling inside a tornado of my thoughts. “I am confused. I am sad. I am unhappy.” I believed I was those thoughts. I identified myself with them, as them.
After several weeks of meditation, I felt like I was sucked out of that whirlwind and put right on the edge of it. I still felt the pull into this crazy vortex of thoughts, but I started to question – "Wait a minute. AM I confused? AM I confusion?"
Then after a while, I...
2020-06-2205 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #6 Meditation shows you things.Some amazing things happened while I meditated - the lava lamp stuff I talk about in the book, the tingling sensation in my head, feeling like I was snatched out of time and space - but so much more happened afterwards. My morning hour of meditation gave me realizations throughout the rest of the day, no matter what I was doing. Answers came quickly. Lost items were found easily. Things flowed without my effort and the insights I had around personal growth issues that had been plaguing me for years popped up in my conscious mind as nuggets of...
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #5 Meditation reveals the One behind the thoughts.Whatever the word is for you, Universe, God, Allah, Higher Power, The Thing Itself, there's a You behind you. there's a Mind behind your mind and thank goodness for that! This is the Mind that knows all because It is All. I like to call it "the Intelligence that holds all the planets in place." This is the Mind that communicates via our intuition. It knows stuff and wants to share! Meditation connects you with this Mind and the beneftis are life changing. Get to know this Mind as quickly as possible because it's awesome.
From the b...
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #4 There is no method of meditation.Not to say that there aren't different teachings that are valid and worthwhile because I too teach different "types" of meditation. However, I now believe that there is no necessary method. If you think there's a method that delays the experience. "I have to go find the method because I don't know what is it. Somebody has to teach me." No. The method of meditation is get a chair. Sit down. Set the timer on your phone for 60 minutes or six. Close your eyes. Get the popcorn and watch the show. That's it. And the next day, do it...
2020-06-2205 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #3 Meditation is not about the elimination of your thoughts.The mind’s job is to think. It’s like a manufacturing warehouse, churning out thoughts all day and all night. When we go to sleep, the mind is still creating thoughts - your thoughts, my thoughts, everybody’s thoughts. I believe they swirl around at night while we’re asleep, waiting. Then when you wake up – sometimes before you even open your eyes – they come rushing in! Thoughts, thoughts and more thoughts! So meditation is NOT about stopping thoughts. They’re here to stay. Also, meditation is very quick with the impact it has on the body. Though I left Kyle Ce...
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #2 Meditation is not about stopping your thoughts.For those who think meditation is about stopping your thoughts, I would say that the majority of my time meditating is filled with thoughts. What changed is my relationship to them.
From the book, "The Confusion Experiment."
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Findings - #1 Meditation is really the honing of the skill to be still.Meditation is about the practice of sitting with yourself, which is actually very difficult for most people to do because we’re not comfortable being with ourselves. We’re also very addicted to stimulation and the idea of having none for an hour - let alone 15 minutes - is terrifying for most people. We’ve also convinced ourselves that we don’t have the time. That’s why meditation is a practice. By doing it everyday, you strengthen your meditation muscle and become more comfortable simply being with yourself.
From the book, "The Confusion Experiment."
2020-06-2204 minThe Confusion ExperimentThe Confusion Experiment Trailer - Episode 000Welcome to The Confusion Experiment podcast! This short introduction tells you everything you need to know about the show and the special three part mini-series, "The Findings" that kicks things off. Thanks for listening. Enjoy.
2020-06-0102 min