Banafsheh Sayyad: Being 100 Percent Present and 100 Percent Fully Gone

April 21, 2026

Banafsheh Sayyad: Being 100 Percent Present and 100 Percent Fully Gone

Banafsheh Sayyad — April 21, 2026

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Can the body become a doorway to the divine—not by transcending it, but by fully inhabiting it?

This week, Tami Simon speaks with Banafsheh Sayyad—master Iranian sacred dancer, choreographer, transformational teacher, and founder of Dance of Oneness—about her new Sounds True book, Dance of Oneness: Embody Love and Luminosity to Transform Your Life. A trailblazing innovator of Sufi dance forms previously performed only by men, Banafsheh draws from flamenco, Persian dance, Tai Chi, Sufi whirling, and her background in Chinese medicine to guide practitioners into deeper embodiment, healing, and spiritual presence.

Join Tami and Banafsheh to explore:

The Dance of Oneness modality—its three interwoven streams of movement, wisdom teachings, and energy healing
What it means to be “100 percent present and 100 percent fully gone”—and why both are essential
Whirling as a portal: the trance state it opens, the stillness it reveals, and what it means to be danced rather than to dance
The ascending and descending currents of energy in the body—and their marriage at the heart
How flamenco gave Banafsheh a form for grief, anger, and sovereign feminine power after leaving Iran
The three layers of the heart—and how movement can break through armoring to restore openness
Discipline as the foundation of surrender: why a sturdy chalice is what allows you to receive
A guided embodiment practice you can do right now

Whether you’re a seasoned movement practitioner or have never considered dance as a spiritual path, this interview is an invitation to come home to the body—and discover what can move through you when you do.

Listen now and begin dancing toward oneness. →

This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.

Banafsheh Sayyad is a master Iranian sacred dancer, choreographer, transformational teacher, and founder of Dance of Oneness®, a certification program that explores dance as a path of embodied spirituality. Performing and teaching internationally, she has initiated thousands into the profound wisdom of the body. She is one of the few bearers of Persian dance in the world and a pioneer in creating a liberated feminine expression in the Sufi dance tradition. For more, visit danceofoneness.org.

Posted April 21, 2026

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Each week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon interviews leading voices in the Mind/Body/Spirit space about a vast spectrum of fascinating ideas. Since 2009, Tami and her guests have been exploring the edge of understanding, nearly 1,000 episodes on the honest work of change, including spiritual discovery, awakening, intuition, purpose, trauma, and grief.

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Banafsheh Sayyad: Being 100 Percent Present and 100 Pe...

Banafsheh Sayyad — April 21, 2026

Can the body become a doorway to the divine—not by transcending it, but by fully inhabiting it?

Join Tami and Banafsheh to explore:

The Dance of Oneness modality—its three interwoven streams of movement, wisdom teachings, and energy healing
What it means to be “100 percent present and 100 percent fully gone”—and why both are essential
Whirling as a portal: the trance state it opens, the stillness it reveals, and what it means to be danced rather than to dance
The ascending and descending currents of energy in the body—and their marriage at the heart
How flamenco gave Banafsheh a form for grief, anger, and sovereign feminine power after leaving Iran
The three layers of the heart—and how movement can break through armoring to restore openness
Discipline as the foundation of surrender: why a sturdy chalice is what allows you to receive
A guided embodiment practice you can do right now

Listen now and begin dancing toward oneness. →

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Ever notice how a tiny criticism can send you into a full-blown spiral, and then you spend the rest of the day furious at yourself for spiraling? Dr. Jeffrey Rutstein has a theory about why that happens, and it starts before you ever had a say in the matter: with the nervous system you were born with.

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Why your baseline nervous system state is more inheritance than character flaw
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This one’s for anyone who’s ever hated themselves for “overreacting.” So…pretty much everyone.

Taken from the full Insights at the Edge conversation with Jeffrey Rutstein titled “Not Being a Prisoner To Your Nervous System.”

Find the complete interview: https://bit.ly/iate-jeffrey-rutstein

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What if the type you’ve been typing yourself as isn’t the whole story? Tami Simon sits down with Enneagram pioneer Beatrice Chestnut to mark the re-release of her classic guide, The Complete Enneagram, and to ask why facing our shadow, not avoiding it, is the real path to waking up.

Beatrice Chestnut, PhD, is a global expert, researcher, and educator on the Enneagram. She holds a PhD in communication studies and a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and is a licensed psychotherapist, coach, and business consultant based in San Francisco. She is the author of several acclaimed books on the Enneagram, including the newly re-released edition of The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge, widely considered a classic in Enneagram literature.

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Listen now to discover your own path to greater self-knowledge. →

This conversation offers genuine transmission, not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together, and it originally aired on Sounds True One.

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Just One Question | Gabor Maté: What Keeps Me from Be...

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Why do some of the most hardened people—lifers on death row, people who’ve killed—turn out to be, underneath it all, remarkably sensitive? Physician and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté has spent decades working with addicts and prisoners, and he’s found a pattern that upends how we usually think about cruelty and compassion.

Dr. Gabor Maté is a physician and bestselling author whose work on trauma and addiction has shaped how millions understand pain, illness, and healing. He’s the author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, When the Body Says No, Scattered Minds, and, with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal.

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The difference between “orchid” and “dandelion” temperaments, and why high sensitivity can become either a liability or a gift
Why genes linked to addiction may really be genes for sensitivity

This one’s for anyone trying to understand the roots of cruelty, or working through their own compassion fatigue; toward others, or toward themselves.

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Banafsheh Sayyad: Being 100 Percent Present and 100 Percent Fully Gone

Banafsheh Sayyad: Being 100 Percent Present and 100 Percent Fully Gone

Banafsheh Sayyad — April 21, 2026

900 Episodes and Counting…

Meet Your Host: Tami Simon

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