Tami Simon speaks with Hank Wesselman, who has a PhD in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, and for many years studied the origin of the human species in the Rift Valley in East Africa. He is also a student and teacher of shamanic practices and is the coauthor of the Sounds True book Awakening to the Spirit World, with fellow shamanic teacher Sandra Ingerman. His new book with Sounds True is The Bowl of Light: Ancestral Wisdom from a Hawaiian Shaman. In this episode, Dr. Wesselman speaks the lessons he learned from his friendship with the late Hawaiian kahuna and wisdom keeper Hale Makua-including a technique called “the bowl of light” that can help us connect to our divine nature, and the vision of an “Ancestral Grand Plan” for humanity. (58 minutes)
Hank Wesselman, PhD (1941–2021), was a paleoanthropologist and shamanic teacher who worked with noted anthropologists investigating the mysteries of human origins in Africa. His many books include Spiritwalker, Visionseeker, and Spirit Medicine. For more, see sharedwisdom.com.
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Founded Sounds True in 1985 as a multimedia publishing house with a mission to disseminate spiritual wisdom. She hosts a popular weekly podcast called Insights at the Edge, where she has interviewed many of today's leading teachers. Tami lives with her wife, Julie M. Kramer, and their two spoodles, Rasberry and Bula, in Boulder, Colorado.
Hank Wesselman is a paleoanthropologist and a shamanic practitioner who has devoted his life to exploring the mysteries of human origins. He has authored several books and articles detailing his adventures in altered states and shamanic journeys. With Sounds True, Hank has published The Re-Enchantment: A Shamanic Path to a Life of Wonder, which offers a path for reclaiming a sense of wonder at the many joys of life and the universe. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Hank speak on his interpretation of the soul—including the personal over-soul and a world-soul that communicates through every living being. They discuss the imperative need for humanity to return to a more balanced relationship with nature. Finally, Hank describes the qualities he sees as necessary for someone to step onto the shamanic path as a teacher. (69 minutes)
Tami Simon speaks with Hank Wesselman, who has a PhD in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, and for many years studied the origin of the human species in the Rift Valley in East Africa. He is also a student and teacher of shamanic practices and is the coauthor of the Sounds True book Awakening to the Spirit World, with fellow shamanic teacher Sandra Ingerman. His new book with Sounds True is The Bowl of Light: Ancestral Wisdom from a Hawaiian Shaman. In this episode, Dr. Wesselman speaks the lessons he learned from his friendship with the late Hawaiian kahuna and wisdom keeper Hale Makua-including a technique called “the bowl of light” that can help us connect to our divine nature, and the vision of an “Ancestral Grand Plan” for humanity. (58 minutes)
Tami Simon speaks with Hank Wesselman, who has a PhD in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, and for many years studied the origin of the human species in the Rift Valley in East Africa. He is also a student and teacher of shamanic practices and is the coauthor of the new Sounds True book Awakening to the Spirit World. Hank discusses what he calls the coming great age in which direct spiritual revelation will take precedence over any type of organized religion, and the import role that shamans hold today in connecting the dream world with present reality. (64 minutes)
What does it mean to truly see another person—not just their surface, but their soul, their yearning, their infinite dignity?
This week, Tami speaks with David Brooks—acclaimed New York Times columnist, author, and PBS NewsHour commentator—about his remarkable journey from emotional guardedness to what he calls “heart vision.” In this profound interview on Insights at the Edge, David shares the mystical experiences that transformed his understanding of human connection, including a pivotal moment in a New York subway when he suddenly perceived everyone around him as souls in motion.
Join Tami and David to explore:
David’s emotional awakening and the journey from cerebral detachment to human vulnerability
The distinction between diminishers and illuminators—and how we see others
Why attention is the ultimate form of generosity and morality
The difference between heart intelligence and mental intelligence
How perception itself is an act of creation, not passive observation
Practical skills for seeing others deeply: the on/off switch of attention, being a loud listener, and avoiding the topper trap
Why he identifies as a religious rather than a spiritual person
The moral order of the universe and how our yearnings reflect something woven into reality itself
How rupture and repair shape us—and why staying in pain can be necessary for growth
David’s wisdom reminds us that in a world increasingly dominated by data and algorithms, the art of truly seeing another human being remains our most sacred—and most practical—capacity.
Listen now to discover how cultivating the illuminator’s gaze can transform every relationship in your life.
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.
What truly matters when we face the end of life? After decades of sitting at the bedside of hundreds of dying people, Frank Ostaseski has distilled the deepest human concerns into two essential questions: Am I loved? Have I loved well?
This week on Insights at the Edge, Tami welcomes Frank Ostaseski—co-founder of America’s first Buddhist hospice, the Zen Hospice Project, founder of the Metta Institute, and author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. Frank brings extraordinary wisdom from his pioneering work in compassionate end-of-life care, along with profound personal insights from his own encounters with heart surgery, strokes, and the transformative vulnerability of being “on the other side of the sheets.”
Join Tami and Frank to explore:
The two essential questions that arise when facing death—and what they reveal about living fully now
Why emotional flexibility is the true condition for healing and transformation
How to meet our own fear and pain without abandoning ourselves or others
The practice of “allowing” as a path to both wisdom and compassion
What happens in the dying process: surrender, reconstitution, and coming home
Why Frank is allergic to the notion of a “good death”
The indestructible love that emerges when we keep our hearts open through pain
How to practice dying by paying attention to everyday endings
This conversation is for anyone grappling with loss, change, or the fundamental questions of existence—offering not prescriptive answers, but the profound medicine of honest presence and the recognition that our vulnerability itself is one of our most beautiful human qualities.
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.
What if awakening isn’t a single destination but an endless unfolding of reality’s many faces? This week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon facilitates a groundbreaking conversation between two of the most profound spiritual teachers of our time: A.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of the Diamond Approach, and Zen teacher Henry Shukman.
In this rare dialogue, these teachers—meeting for the first time—explore how different wisdom traditions point to distinct dimensions of awakened experience. Rather than claiming all paths lead to the same mountaintop, they celebrate the unique territory each tradition reveals: from the “blazing forth” of creative emptiness to experiences where consciousness itself dissolves, from the recognition that each point contains the entire universe to the discovery that everything is made of love.
Join Tami, Hameed, and Henry to discover:
Why awakening is an endless process rather than a final arrival
The profound difference between thinking and heart-knowing
How to navigate the fear that arises at the threshold of ego dissolution
The role of trust, compassion, and basic trust in profound transformation
What happens when individual consciousness completely ceases
Why nothingness and being are inseparable faces of reality
How grief and catastrophic loss can become doorways to awakening
The Zen teaching of uni-locality—experiencing that one point is everything
Why love may be the most fundamental nature of reality itself
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.
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