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In this episode, Chris and Joel have a heart-to-heart about:

• Joel’s profound experience of losing his brother to a drunk driving accident

• • Living each moment with the inner knowing that it could be our last
  • Joel’s guitar pedal and gear company, Chase Bliss
  • Following your bliss and seeing doors open in front of you
  • Mixing together analog technology with digital control in the guitar industry
  • Parallels between the process of creating guitar pedals and the process of music creation
  • Working through introversion and finding comfort in community
  • Holding onto a positive outlook for the future
  “We’ve gotta get out of these echo chambers and see the humanity in one another. After you share space with someone and you’re reflecting on it, you feel this goodness that is indescribable about that connection and community amongst humans. We just need to be around other humans.” –Joel Korte

  About Joel Korte:

  Joel Korte is the founder of Chase Bliss, one of the most creative, cutting-edge guitar gear companies. As a builder and innovator, Joel Korte is changing the way musicians shape sound from deep textured effects to the intersection of analog and digital creativity.

  More Be Here Now Network Podcasts:

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  Lama Rod Owens covers the dharma of freedom, loving ourselves, ancestral work, and the power of meditation: Dedication to Liberation

  Through bearing witness, love & service, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee shares how we can collectively heal the crisis of disconnection & ecological devastation: Love & Service

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  JoAnna Hardy shares a guided meditation all around the first foundation of mindfulness – mindfulness of the body: First Foundation Guided Meditation

  Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh explores how we can joyfully bring mindfulness into everyday activities like phone calls, driving, and walking: The Ojai Foundation Presents: Under the Teaching Tree with Thich Nhat Hanh

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  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Somatic singer and teacher Marisa Michelson shares information on the powerful work of connecting to the body through song and uninhibited self-expression.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode of The Indie Spiritualist, Chris and Marisa have a conversation about:

• Vocal ‘de-armoring’: working with voice, the body, and the psyche to release blocks
• Bringing somatic relationship and embodiment into the classical music world
• How Marisa discovered that singing could bring her into transcendent bliss
• Navigating information overload in our fast-paced, tech-driven age
• A roadmap to reconnect with the body and relearn the language of direct experience
• Letting spontaneity flow through the liberating practice of somatic singing
• A jaw-focused practice for releasing tension and unlocking full expression
• Trust and vulnerability to open up our bodies, hearts, and minds
• Simple somatic practices to weave into day-to-day life

About Marisa Michelson:

In addition to being a sought-after somatic singing teacher, Marisa is an award-winning composer of music-theatre, experimental musicals, oratorios and choral works, and was the founding director of the psychedelic singing ensemble Constellation Chor | an immersion in voice, movement, and spirit. Marisa has written four full-length musicals, two of which were produced off-Broadway by Prospect Theater Company. Her most personal composition project to date was her Desire|Divinity Project, a three part music-theater piece exploring the connection between sexuality and spirituality through an exegesis of the Song of Songs and a musicalization of Sappho’s poetry fragments. She currently travels around singing with the vocal quartet, Agrol Agra, which performs Hungarian folk songs and Bartok arrangements of said folk songs. Marisa is beyond grateful to live and work and teach on acres of land in Upstate New York (Ancram/unceded Mohican land). Marisa gives her gratitude to the trees, red-winged blackbirds, deer, hares, water and wind, dirt, bees, and non-human life for the profound support. Connect with Marisa on her website.

“It’s been such a gift for me to work with processes, particular exercises, and practices that are developing my understanding of how energies are moving through my body, how muscles are moving in coordination with each other, and how emotions are coordinating with the physical body, the nervous system, the energy body. Getting to go deeper into this is like learning a language that can then allow us to have more and more clarity in our own direct experience.” – Marisa Michelson

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Musician Craig Wedren reflects on his rise to fame in the D.C. hardcore scene, blending together punk rock, spirituality, and healing.

In this episode, Chris and Craig converse about:

• From punk rock roots to a spiritual path: how Craig’s musical journey shaped his creative and personal life
• Craig’s first exposure to meditation in his 20s
• The origins of music, sound, and vibration
• How music transcends language, culture, and generations to connect all people
• Transcendental Meditation and inspirational tricksters
• Searching for deeper meaning and spirituality in modern, often soulless society
• Craig’s improvisational practices: free writing & free-form guitar playing
• Craig’s work creating original music for a therapeutic ketamine clinic called Kanopy
• Ketamine treatment for addiction recovery
• Craig’s rise to fame in the D.C. punk scene with his band Shudder to Think
• The synergy between performer and audience
• How Craig’s cancer diagnosis brought him back down to earth and showed him what truly mattered

“I found a lot of punk rockers or hardcore people are particularly drawn to eastern religions. A friend of a friend said once, ‘the search for something deeper in a world increasingly devoid of it’. It makes perfect sense that I am meeting people that later on get drawn to different paths, traditions, and teachings.” – Chris Grosso

About Craig Wedren:

Craig Wedren first gained notice as the dynamic, multi-octave-wielding frontman of Shudder to Think – one of the first Washington, D.C. bands to make the transition from the revered Dischord punk label to the majors during the grunge era. Wedren has released a series of solo albums and related collaborative projects. At the same time, Wedren’s music has become an essential part of some of film and television’s most popular and lauded shows. In recent years, Wedren’s endlessly creative spirit has also seen him release Adult Desire 360--a VR app comprised of 360° panoramic music videos featuring songs from his album Adult Desire; share the limited edition hard-bound book My '90s, featuring photos he took on his Polaroid Spectra in the 1990s and early 2000s that documented his late nights and early mornings on the road with Shudder to Think and time with friends including Fugazi, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, members of The State and more; and Sabbath Sessions, his multi-episode podcast featuring musical meditations that represent his first explorations of ambient choral music, where Wedren’s technique of sampling and looping his famously elastic voice results in a unique kind of sound bath. Check out Craig’s website.

“In general, the playground of my work, the sandbox of it, is pretty regulating I would say. I’ve been programming playlists and now I am starting to write original music for some friends of mine who have a ketamine therapy clinic.” – Craig Wedren

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