How Simple Fixes & Spiritual Practices Change Everything

Summary

Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown - Episode Summary

Episode Title: How Simple Fixes & Spiritual Practices Change Everything
Hosts: Mayim Bialik, Jonathan Cohen
Release Date: November 14, 2025

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[Episode Overview]

Main Theme:
This special episode, originally exclusive to Substack subscribers, features hosts Mayim Bialik and Jonathan Cohen in a candid, unscripted conversation about the ways simple solutions and spiritual practices can profoundly shift our emotional and practical lives. They revisit topics around misunderstandings, intuition, altered states of consciousness, and the often-overlooked intersection between metaphysics and daily living—tying in themes and questions raised in their earlier episode with channeler Lee Harris.

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[Key Discussion Points & Insights]

1. The Power of Simple Solutions (06:00–07:00)

• Relatable Story: Jonathan recalls a nearly friendship-ending incident with Mayim, rooted in a simple technical issue—Mayim couldn’t hear him during a video chat, blamed his internet, only to realize her volume was turned down.
  • Jonathan: “Have you tried turning your volume up?”
  • Mayim: “Oh, yeah, that did it. And that saved our relationship.”
• Lesson: Before jumping to complex or metaphysical conclusions, check for simple, practical explanations first.
  • Jonathan: “Before you go to, ‘is there a ghost in the house?,’ check if the window’s open and it’s drafty.” (06:45)

2. Mediums vs. Channelers – What's the Difference? (08:10–10:00)

• Mayim and Jonathan revisit their interview with Lee Harris, who channels "the Z’s."
• Discussion about the nuanced differences between mediums (connect with the dead, spirit guides) and channelers (often connect to non-human guides, transmit messages as the conduit).
  • Mayim: “All mediums are channelers, not all channelers are mediums, but I could be wrong.” (09:03)
  • Jonathan: “A channeler usually has a specific channel and frequency they contact… like Lee with the Z’s.” (09:08)

3. The Science of Spiritual Connection (10:30–12:50)

• Mental Health & Spirituality: Scientific evidence shows spiritual connection helps prevent depression, anxiety, and loneliness, and even has measurable impacts on brain and immune system health, referencing Dr. Lisa Miller’s research.
  • Jonathan: “People with a religious practice… are neuroprotective in all sorts of ways.” (11:42)
• Practical Applications: Connection isn’t just religious—it can be nature, volunteering, music, or community.
  • Mayim: “There are so many different ways to feel connected to something greater than ourselves.” (11:55)

4. Skepticism vs. Open-Mindedness (12:21–13:03; 21:44–24:41)

• Mayim’s Openness: Expresses both healthy skepticism and curiosity about channeling and metaphysics—finding it difficult to integrate into her scientific worldview, yet remaining receptive.
  • Mayim: “If I can’t measure it, it’s still very hard for me to understand.” (23:46)
• Jonathan: Encourages exploring mechanisms—neural pathways, brain quieting in meditation or altered states—without requiring full proof.
  • Jonathan: “The filtering mechanisms during waking consciousness prevent us from seeing more information… in these meditative states, the brain calms and we have more access.” (25:19–26:37)

5. Creativity, Trauma, and Accessing Altered States (18:18–19:56; 27:39–29:24)

• Connection between trauma, creativity, and intuition: Many people who access altered states (like mediums/channelers) have histories of intense creativity or trauma, sometimes both.
  • Jonathan: “Almost everyone that we’ve spoken to either has a traumatic experience early on... or an intense connection to creativity.” (27:39)
• Actionable Advice: You can develop intuition by believing it’s possible, managing stress/anxiety, and engaging in creative exercises.
• Mayim: “There are ways to learn… to expand that consciousness. It doesn’t happen from a three-minute body scan before bed—it’s something that shifts with more practice.” (26:37)

6. Practical Spirituality for Daily Living (16:42–18:18)

• Jonathan: Emphasizes spirituality isn’t just about cosmic experiences—it’s about being calmer, gaining perspective, and building patience for real life.
  • Jonathan: “How do we use spirituality to be better human beings in the moment, to be calmer, to have a larger perspective?” (16:42)
• Lee Harris’ Example: When stuck in a challenging situation (escaping a wildfire), he listened to an intuitive nudge that ended up being the safest choice—a concrete example of practical intuition.

7. Navigating Life Changes and Alignment (18:18–21:59)

• The pain and opportunity in major life transitions (moving cities, changing careers, etc.)
  • Mayim: “What Lee teaches people is, like, there’s a wisdom about what’s healthiest for you. …More people need to be in touch with their creative side.” (18:18)
• Jonathan: “There’s a mourning process that has to happen and a reimagining of what your life is going to be.” (19:56)

8. The Limits of Current Science—and the Value of Exploration (24:07–25:04; 29:24–31:12)

• Framework Seeking: Mayim wants a tangible mechanism, a scientific framework for these altered states, but recognizes current science can’t fully explain them yet.
  • Mayim: “I’m open to having these conversations. …Jeffrey Kripal has taught us how to think impossibly. …50 years ago, someone like Lee Harris would be given psychiatric suggestions… I’m grateful that we live in an era where we’re comfortable allowing him to be himself.” (29:24)

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[Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments]

• On simple solutions:
  • Jonathan: “Check the easiest thing first.” (06:38)
• On spiritual humility:
  • Mayim: “He’s very humble. He’s very wowed by the whole thing as well.” (12:23)
• On skepticism vs. faith:
  • Mayim: “To me, it’s unscientific… to say, I’m not going to talk to this person.” (29:24)
• On expanding consciousness:
  • Jonathan: “I think it’s 100% possible. I think it’s a birthright… spirituality is our human birthright.” (28:55)
• On the community:
  • Mayim: “What if all these people got to be in one room? …We’ve just been able to gather people who want to talk about the same things.” (31:35)
• Humor:
  • Mayim: “You think I don’t understand that?” (23:25)
  • Jonathan: “You’re in parallel universes all at the same time.” (31:12)
  • Mayim: “What would the Z’s say?” (33:34)
  • Mayim: “Turn on the air conditioning. That’s what they would say.” (33:36)

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[Timestamps for Important Segments]

• 06:00–07:00: Miscommunication story, practical vs. metaphysical problem-solving
• 08:10–10:00: Mediums vs. channelers
• 10:30–12:50: The science behind spirituality and health
• 16:42–18:18: Practical applications of spirituality, Lee Harris’ subway awakening
• 18:18–21:59: Creativity, intuition, and making major life changes
• 21:44–24:41: Mayim’s comfort with skepticism and the limits of scientific explanation
• 25:19–26:37: Meditation, filtering of reality, and neuroscience
• 27:39–29:24: Learning to access intuition; trauma, neurobiology, and practice
• 29:24–31:12: Openness to “impossible” ideas and building a growth-minded community

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[Tone & Takeaways]

• The conversation is casual, playful, and self-aware, blending scientific curiosity with open-minded contemplation.
• Mayim and Jonathan repeatedly return to the value of both ruling out obvious practical problems and embracing softer, spiritual or creative practices that expand our perspective.
• They foster a community that holds space for both skepticism and mystery—welcoming exploration, creativity, and connection as vital components of well-being.

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For listeners seeking practical advice, personal insights, and a blend of neuroscience with metaphysical openness, this episode is a rich, relatable, and often humorous invitation to break down what it means to thrive in the modern world.

Transcript

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[Mayim Bialik]

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[Mayim Bialik]

Hi, I'm Mayambialik.

[Jonathan Cohen]

And I'm Jonathan Cohen.

[Mayim Bialik]

And welcome to our Breakdown. Today we're gonna share an exclusive episode that we did a while back that had previously only been available to our special substack community members. But now we're just opening it all up.

[Jonathan Cohen]

We want to give you a peek behind the curtain. This episode starts with one of my favorite stories about how Mayim and I almost stopped speaking. Seriously. It's years of friendship, collaboration and love. Nearly ended over a surprisingly simple and hilarious problem that I share for the very first time in this episode that you're about to hear.

[Mayim Bialik]

And also, we should clarify, this isn't an episode like, oh, we had a guest and it was only available. This was me and Jonathan talking. So it's a special Mayim and Jonathan episode. Also, this conversation about misunderstandings is how I like to look at the when we almost stop speaking, it got us talking about other challenges in life. Emotional challenges, sometimes spiritual challenges, and sometimes purely practical ones.

[Jonathan Cohen]

The payoff really of this surprising moment was that it tied so perfectly into the idea that often when we have really complicated problems, the first step is ruling out some things that are just obvious and you'll hear later on it will all make sense. This episode also, we explore mediums and channelers. It's a follow up to our very popular Lee Harris episode. Lee is the guest who channels the Z's. He had an experience, an awakening where.

[Mayim Bialik]

His on the subway.

[Jonathan Cohen]

On the subway, his intuitive gifts opened up and he suddenly became a medium, channeling information that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people listen to every month.

[Mayim Bialik]

And so in this episode, Jonathan and I kind of dissect that a little bit more. We talk about the difference between mediums and channelers because there is a little bit of a difference. So if you haven't checked out the Lee Harris episode, it's a good background for what we're going to talk about. But the other thing that that comes up in this episode is the tension between skepticism and being open minded. And also talking about how we know that there is science behind meditation, altered states of consciousness. So how is perceiving more reality rather than less something that skeptics can still deny when we know that there is science to being open minded in the first place?

[Jonathan Cohen]

Also, we talk about very practical ways that people can use their intuition. Lee actually gives us an example of being trapped in a fire. There was a wildfire that he was escaping from and he got intuitive guidance to go against the grain against what everyone else was doing. So it's not just theoretical. We're always looking for how can we take this information and make it really a part of our daily lives in a practical way?

[Mayim Bialik]

In addition, in case you've ever wondered about the role of creativity or traumatic experience in those who are able to access altered states, we're going to talk about that and how, how spiritual practices can calm the body and allow you to shift perspective to have access to more. So if you've ever wondered how metaphysics meets real life or maybe you need a change of perspective before just assuming that the universe is against you and everything's random, we think that you are really, really going to enjoy this conversation between me and Jonathan.

[Jonathan Cohen]

If you want more of this type of conversation, I do. Check out our substack Mayim Bialik's breakdown on Substack. Mayim and I do lives every week and we sometimes have guests and have amazing convers there. And those conversations are usually exclusive to the Breaker community. But we are so excited to share this one with you.

We hope you enjoy and we will.

[Mayim Bialik]

See you over on Substack.

Break it down.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Let's tell the story of the one time you couldn't hear me while we were video chatting and you thought you got so upset with me that you almost never spoke to me again. So I was having problems with my Internet at the I was living in a rental house and the Internet was paid for by the rental house. It was like an all inclusive type of thing and the Internet was really spotty and it couldn't figure out why it was spotty. Turned out that it needed new equipment because it had been a really long time. And so the Internet was spotty. And so every now and again, when I would walk around the house and talk to Mime, it would break out, and she couldn't hear me. And she would get super annoyed because it's obviously very annoying because you can only hear every other word. And at one point, we're having a conversation, and she's like, I can't hear you. And I go to the place where I know in the house that the Internet is strong. She's like, I can't hear you. And so I'm like. But I'm not moving. Like, normally when I'm pacing, it's the worst. She's like, I just. I can't hear you. And she's getting more and more frustrated. And I'm like, at my wit's end, I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm not doing all the things that I know will make the Internet bad. And she's like, I just. I can't. She's just starts really elevating. I can't hear you. I'm getting off the phone. I'm like, have you tried turning your volume up? And she's like, oh, yeah, that did it. And that saved our relationship.

[Mayim Bialik]

And here we are.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Sometimes our problems are metaphysical. Sometimes our problems are emotional, and sometimes our problems are very, very practical.

[Mayim Bialik]

So now, whenever I can't hear him, he's always like, is your volume up? Check the easiest thing first.

[Jonathan Cohen]

But I think that is actually true with. Life is like, before you go to, is there a ghost in the house? You're like, is the window open? And it's drafty.

[Mayim Bialik]

That's true. My cat is really. She's very upset. Whenever I sit here, she always comes up on the bed. But she had to have a vet appointment, which she has very, very rarely. And they trimmed her nails because that's a nice thing, that she thinks that she's not allowed on the bed because she normally uses her nails to claw her way up on the bed. It's so sad. Like, I'm trying to explain to her, you can come up here. It's okay. I'm gonna sit here. I'm right here. Then we put a little, like, step stool kind of thing so that in case she can get up here. Sue's not having any of it. She thinks that means really don't come up here, because now there's a little piece of furniture there. She's very upset.

[Jonathan Cohen]

We have a lot to Talk about today.

[Mayim Bialik]

That seems like you have bad news.

[Jonathan Cohen]

No, I have great news.

[Mayim Bialik]

We did an episode, an episode that did great. It's so crazy. People love it.

[Jonathan Cohen]

People are loving the episode. What's awesome is that it started in one of our most fun ways, where the guest sits down and he asks, so why am I here?

[Mayim Bialik]

No, what he actually said was like, he's a little trepidatious. His team even questioned producer Valerie and was like, is this for real? Is this a joke? He was like, I. I'm not sure what I'm doing here.

[Jonathan Cohen]

I say that every time I get on the Internet with you.

[Mayim Bialik]

We're talking about Lee Harris. We've had people on who are mediums.

[Jonathan Cohen]

We haven't had an official channeler. If I look back, Susan Giesemann was a medium. Long island medium is a medium.

[Mayim Bialik]

I think Suzanne would say that she's a channeler.

[Jonathan Cohen]

She doesn't lead with that.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Right.

[Mayim Bialik]

I think also this is one of the most unusual stories we heard. This was a person who says that literally out of the blue, he started, I don't want to say hearing voices because as he described, it's different than hearing voices as people do if they're having auditory hallucinations. He had an experience where he started, as he describes it, receiving information that even he was not certain what was happening. What's the difference between medium and channel? I was under the impression that mediums speak to people who have passed. I would say channeling is a more umbrella term. I think maybe all mediums are channelers, not all channelers are mediums, but I could be wrong.

[Jonathan Cohen]

That's a good one. I understood it as a medium connects with people who have passed, but also can connect, I think, depending on the medium, to spirit guides, et cetera, who may be people who have passed, but maybe other entities. A channeler usually has a specific channel and a frequency that they contact. So Lee, for example, with his communication with disease, those are his guides. And usually it's a specific set of guides that he is focused on. So that's how I understand the difference. I don't know if Lee. And we didn't get to talk to him about this. If he's just like, hey, let me go talk to other people in that realm, or if he just hangs out with his dudes or dudettes.

[Mayim Bialik]

As Lee talks about it, the these. You know, there's different names, and some of them are male, some are female. But I don't know. It's. It's. It's arbitrary.

[Jonathan Cohen]

But also, he Said that they appear to us like that because we understand that going back to the timeline here, Lee says, okay, why am I here? And what we say is. And actually, this is an interesting part of the episode. It was like right at the beginning of the episode, you say, we started off democratizing mental health. We wanted to share information about what makes people well. And then I go into a great little diatribe where I explain that we've spoken to all sorts of people from across the spectrum of well being, from medical doctors to psychologists, researchers. And what the overall overlapping message has been is that to connect with something greater than ourselves has been shown to have physiological and psychological benefit, even helping people prevent against depression, anxiety, loneliness. It has biological effects where you can see that the immune system is healthier. And Dr. Lisa Miller, who was one of our favorite doctors, she describes, and she studies the structure of the brain, believing that we have a spiritual component, that our brain is made up to seek out and thrive on spiritual experiences, and that it has enormous effects and that it can be as effective or more effective than SSRIs, and that people who have a religious practice, which is really believing in something greater than themselves, doesn't really actually matter what the religion is, are neuroprotective in all sorts of ways that she describes. So then we said to Lee, well, you know, you come into that by having a connection and having connected to something greater than yourself and talk about what that experience is and share that information for people. And so there are so many different ways to feel connected to something greater than ourselves. We talk about nature, we talk about singing and community and volunteering, and also different ways to have a spiritual practice. And in my experience and talking to him, Lee's channeling is another way of spiritual connection and practice.

[Mayim Bialik]

And what I think is so striking, at least for me, about Lee, like, when you hear someone who has this experience, like, on paper, I was like, what's this guy's personality gonna be like? Is he gonna be like, I know everything and like, come buy my books? And he's just so.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Just down to earth, right?

[Mayim Bialik]

Well, like, very down to earth. He's very humble. He's very wowed by the whole thing as well. And that helps me kind of understand why we had him, you know, Like, I wanted to find out more about his personality and his worldview, you know, that he's formed from having this kind of unbelievable experience.

[Jonathan Cohen]

I think it's a really good point and that his normality is that, like, I've seen people who. Who live in this world and in the self help and I'm in front of crowds and they can be very performative in many ways.

[Mayim Bialik]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Cohen]

And that's off putting, right? That performativeness. He came in and like if you didn't know what he did, you have no clue.

[Mayim Bialik]

I'd want to like order a coffee from him at a coffee store and be like, hey, you're a nice guy.

[Jonathan Cohen]

I'd be like, what books are you reading? Like, let's hang out. Like. And that's what I really appreciated because I've been around this world exploring all these different types of modalities just as my own personal seeker. And it's really nice to see people who are grounded and doing this work, but grounded in the real world. And like Leah's very much that. Like yes. You could see Lee at the Tim Hortons line in Canada getting his donut and coffee.

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[Jonathan Cohen]

Very important to me, is that like spirituality can be. Like I'm going to go off and experience the metaphysical sensation of being one with everything in the cosmos. And yes, that is true, you can have that. But how do we use spirituality? And we talked about this with Betty as well. How do we use spirituality to be better human beings in the moment, to be calmer, to have a larger perspective, to not see our lives as limited as they are sometimes when we're facing hardship. How do we use it to be more connected to the people around us, to know ourselves better, to have a wider aperture of what's possible for both ourselves and other people? Have more patience. So when he described his initial interaction with disease, where he's on the subway and he hears that voice, he was actually rattling around in his own mind about a problem he was having. It was really a limit and a struggle that he was having. And what he said was when he heard that voice, both his mind relaxed, but he had a somatic relaxation where the tension that he was holding softened. That's what he knew to be channeled energy. I love that because it aligns with this idea of how do you take something that can sound esoteric and out there and what practical benefit does it have? Well, it makes me have a different perspective. It made him have a different perspective. It calmed his body so that he could relax lacks in the present. And I love that application, that it is so tangible that just changing your perspective has an immediate benefit on you.

[Mayim Bialik]

This was not his path that he was going down. Like, he didn't know that he was gonna spend his life sharing information with other people. Like, it's so no one could have imagined that for him. And one of the other things that, you know, people talk about, especially psychologists that we have on and. And more of, like, the medical side of experts, is like, are you living a life that's in alignment with your optimal health? And, you know, for so many people, it's a struggle, right? Like paying rent and health insurance and all these things. And just in the last month, I know several people who have moved out of Los Angeles because it wasn't serving them. It's not serving them. It's not serving them financially, it's not serving them emotionally. And even though it's painful to move or to have to relocate, just the notion that, like, what Lee teaches people is, like, there's a wisdom about what's healthiest for you. And there may be lots of obstacles in the way, but especially with his emphasis on music and creativity, like, yes, more people need to be in touch with their creative side. More people need to, like, pick up coloring pencils, like, whatever that is. Like, we're being told by so many different people. Martha Beck talked about this, and I think Covid did this for a lot of people. Like, why am I sitting in a car for hours a day, you know, to wear this suit and, like, sit in a cubicle? Like, you know, I think there's been, I mean, a lot of people say, like, an expansion of our sort of consciousness of, like, what do I want my life to look like? And I really love how much he sort of, like, seized on this. And I find it really inspiring, you know, And I hope that other people do as well.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Like, the change when you leave Los Angeles or you leave a city and you have a realization that this isn't working. And it could be anything, right? When you have your mindset on, this is the job that I think I'm really gonna do. But then you get there, and the reality isn't what think it is, and your body is telling you, wait a second. This is too difficult or it's breaking down, or the relationship or the city. There's a mourning process that has to happen and there's a reimagining of what your life is going to be because you had only imagined it in this way, right? A lot of people especially who come to LA are like, it's the promised land, it's the golden land. I'm going to be in the movie industry. And then the movie industry changes. And like we were talking to a really, really well known actor who has been in so many different things they on a popular show and she was like, I don't even live in LA anymore because I work everywhere else. So what struck me is like the changing nature of how we have to reimagine our lives because we've built up these ideas of what our life is going to be. And so to tie it back to Lee is that when he started to hear that voice, he didn't imagine his life going in that direction. He didn't imagine his life is going to be talking to entities or to guardian angels or to spirits. He described that he went into this world through self help. He just wanted to like be more productive and feel better about himself. He didn't know that that was the path that was going to open up for him. When that path did open up, before he could understand what it was, he thought he was going a little nuts. And I think a lot of people, when you start that reimagining process, whether it be I'm going to think about going to Peru, go across the country, move somewhere else, you do start to think you're a little nuts. Because we have built our reality in a construct. Construct that is the only thing that we know.

[Mayim Bialik]

Like, I still don't really understand what's happening. You know what I mean? If I had to practically, in a tangible, materialistic way, explain what's happening, I don't know that I can do that. Like there's something very, very mysterious to me.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Tell me what you mean.

[Mayim Bialik]

Lee is receiving information from a group of entities that are guiding him. And he's has made a life and a career out of conveying the information from these entities to other people. I don't have a way to sort of fit that into a tangible, constructed view that I have of the world.

[Jonathan Cohen]

This is my favorite game. Let's build that out just for a second together. So Thomas Campbell in his episode describes that there are three nodes of consciousness. There's your node of consciousness, there's someone else's node of consciousness. And there's the larger consciousness system. With me so far, kind of. What's the kind of consciousness node? You, as Mayim, are a phone. You're a phone. You're a cell phone. Okay, hello. I'm also a phone. And we are connected through the ethers by all the ones and zeros that exist in the ethereum. So your mime, hello, is talking to me. And we're doing that through the larger consciousness system.

[Mayim Bialik]

Yes.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Lee connects to the larger consciousness system to a set of nodes in the larger consciousness system, and then communicates that down to Lime and Jonathan.

[Mayim Bialik]

You think I don't understand that?

[Jonathan Cohen]

This happens all the time with us, where you say you don't understand something, and I'm like, what's there not to understand? And then there's always a question.

[Mayim Bialik]

This would be like, I don't understand how to get there. And Jonathan would be like, you're gonna take a vehicle. Like, I know how to get there.

[Jonathan Cohen]

But we have to go through this process because you don't ask the question.

[Mayim Bialik]

No, but you know, what? Does Lee have access to more of his brain? Is there something in his brain? Is there something, you know, does he have access to the realm beyond our limited understanding? Thank you, Susan. And I do have a limited understanding, meaning that's the world I'm living in. Because maybe he's broken something open, you know, in his neural pathways. Like, if I can't measure it, it's still very hard for me to understand.

[Jonathan Cohen]

So the mechanism by which he's able to access the larger consciousness system is what we don't understand. Is that what the question is?

[Mayim Bialik]

I think that we're still a little bit on the fringes to be able to say that, like, a universal consciousness is a thing.

[Jonathan Cohen]

After all the interviews, we're still questioning that. I thought that's, like, the thing that we agree on, but maybe we're not. We don't agree on the mechanism.

[Mayim Bialik]

Well, yeah, I think.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Why can't everyone do it?

[Mayim Bialik]

No, I think for me, it's more about a mechanism and really looking for some sort of framework that I can use.

[Jonathan Cohen]

I still don't fully understand the question when you say framework, mechanism. Like, what, What? So I can. I can understand, like, the. Well, how does the brain work? Is it different neural pathways that allow someone to go into this state? And Bruce Grayson talks about that. And actually, a guest we haven't spoken to talks about that. That I have some things to say about that.

[Mayim Bialik]

I think there's still a lot of theoretical components to what you're talking about. And I think a lot of people, you are one of them, feel very comfortable. What if everyone's framework is different? And that's. And it's true, as we've talked about, some people don't need any proof of this.

[Jonathan Cohen]

It's just like, it's like you don't need proof. It's not that I don't need proof. It's that until there is more concrete proof and it is provable, I am open to, to entertaining a handful of theories that I'm not saying can't change and evolve over time, but that feel and sort of get us some sort of understanding. There have been theories that do have proof. There have been imaging that show that we used to think psychedelics and deep meditative states enhance brain activity to give us more access to things. And what we discovered and realized is that they're actually quieting and that the filtering mechanisms that happen during waking consciousness actually prevent us from seeing more information because we're geared to stay alive and go hunt for food and reproduce. And that in these states, especially in yoga, nidra practices where you're in that line between being awake and asleep, the brain actually calms and quiets and. And we then have more access to what could be considered reality where our current reality is quite limited by the filtering system.

[Mayim Bialik]

You know, I think it's a little bit tongue in cheek, but I think it's. Leticia says, why do I feel disappointed and lowly because of my inability to access that greater consciousness. I really relate to that, you know, that notion of like, what is it that people are tapping into? Like, what are they experiencing? And especially like, I could understand if Lee was like, I was meditating for 12 hours straight and then this happened, but he was literally on the subway not even trying to do this. And I think that in many cases, and I would point to people like Suzanne Gieseman's book the Awakened Way, even Martha Beck's book There are ways to learn. There are, there literally are ways to learn, to start to access something different, to feel into intuitive ability. There are ways to kind of expand that consciousness. And it doesn't happen as we've talked about, from like a three minute body scan, you know, before bed. Like, it's something that also shifts the more you practice it. Literally it's something that you kind of can't explain until you are kind of practicing it more. And maybe that's it because this is.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Really important for people and you discuss this. And I think it's the Emotional side of people being like, well, wait a second, people are talking about this thing that other people are accessing and like, how come I can't do it? Suzanne's Giesemann story was that she spent three plus years practicing every day, driven by an intense grief, to reconnect with her daughter after one of the most painful losses of her life. And it was not until, like years and years of practice that she was able to access this because she had never done it before. While Lee may have had this breakthrough, he also describes a deep connection to creativity from a very early part of his life. And we know that creativity wires the brain to be able to think nonlinearly outside of the box in a way that gives us access to something else. Almost everyone, actually that we've spoken to either has a traumatic experience early on that helped them dissociate and go explore other realms, or an intense connection to creativity. We also know that high levels of trauma and anxiety can prevent us from sort of accessing other realms in some cases. Sometimes it increases it, sometimes it decreases it because we're caught in that fight or flight response. So I would say that the first step in thinking about accessing this type of thing is one, imagining that it is possible, two, trying to address any sort of immediate, like, panic states that you're in, and then three, doing micro creative exercises to help facilitate that. And it is, I think it's 100% possible. I think it's a birthright. You know, Lisa Miller talks about that, that spirituality is our human birthright.

[Mayim Bialik]

I appreciate that and really enjoying the comments. I'm reading them kind of as we go. Yeah, I think that I'm absolutely open to, which is we had Leon and why we were able to engage him, I think, in such a, an inspiring conversation, it sounds like, for other people, is because I'm completely open to having these conversations. I am not willing to say this is crazy. I'm not willing, to me, it's unscientific, you know, to say, I'm not going to talk to this person. Jeffrey Kripal has taught us how to think impossibly. And this is one of the things, it sounds impossible, but we get to engage in it. And 50 years ago, probably 20 years ago, someone like Lee Harris would be given psychiatric suggestions, Right. As to what he should do to stop this from happening. And I'm grateful, you know, that we live in an era where we're comfortable allowing him, A, to be himself and B, to be able to build a life and a career, you know, out of guiding other people. So, yes, I'm open to that. I think that still remains to be seen. You know, what kind of framework, again, what kind of framework I can put around the mechanisms of this, what it does mean, you know, for an understanding of a larger sort of consciousness. Also, total aside, I have the phone on my laptop. Like, I have my laptop open and then I have the phone that we're live on. And so I see your face, but there's a delay and it's funny. And sometimes I'll be talking to you and I'm wondering, why are you not nodding your head when I'm saying things you normally nod your head to? And then I real. It's because that's 30 seconds delayed and you're not nodding because something else is happening in the space time continuum.

[Jonathan Cohen]

You're in parallel universes all at the same time.

[Mayim Bialik]

I mean, that's true no matter what.

[Jonathan Cohen]

I want to address someone's comment here about the cold open of the episode ends with Lee turning to you and saying, would you like me to tell you something about yourself? Yeah, it was a nice reading he did for Miami.

[Mayim Bialik]

I'm just so interested, like, what if all these people got to be in one room? Right? And how many things we've just been able to gather of people who want to talk about the same things, want to engage on these topics and so just really love that we have a virtual space, you know, where we can do that. We've got some pretty big exciting stuff that we're going to be doing here on Substack that we can only do.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Here if you feel drawn to it. Tell a friend about this growing Breaker community. We love when you tell people about what's going on.

[Mayim Bialik]

Maybe it doesn't have to be a friend. It's anyone, you know, Mime.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Good to hang with you so early on a Friday morning.

[Mayim Bialik]

It's a great conversation. And for those of you who were on earlier and heard, you know, the cat, she did not come over. I've been here. This is a long time for me to sit and have the cat. She's given me the back of her head. She's like, I'm not gonna sit next to you during that substack live just like this. Maybe she's literally like, ears are up, up like, lady, you cut my nails and now I can't get on the bed.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Probably like if I come near you, you're gonna stick me in that little cage again and take me places.

[Mayim Bialik]

She did really well at the vet, though. She really did Most everyone I speak to when it's like, hey, how are you? Like a friend, I haven't spoke well. The world's on fire. Like, everything's going crazy. The world is crazy. So also want to acknowledge, you know, things every single day. And you know, even in our little mind Bialix breakdown community, you know, we often share things that are going on in the world. Scary things, hard things, complicated things. We're happy to still get to do the work that we do and to also create a space where we can think about ways that hopefully we can make the world better, bigger, and that we can lead more fulfilling lives. Like, that's what a lot of the things are. Jonathan, what are you typing? What's happening? What are we doing?

[Jonathan Cohen]

Nothing. Hi, I'm here. Sometimes I got an idea and I just want to get the idea down. You were talking, I was like, you know what?

[Mayim Bialik]

You go, colette just joined and this is what she has to experience.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Look, what I like about this community is people appreciate a hot flash.

[Mayim Bialik]

I get so mad.

[Jonathan Cohen]

What would the Z's say?

[Mayim Bialik]

Turn on the air conditioning. That's what they would say. Have a good weekend, everybody. We'll see you next time. Thanks for being here.

[Jonathan Cohen]

It's Maya Bialik's breakdown. She's gonna break it down for you. She's got a neuroscience PhD or two. Non fiction was a. And now she's going to break down. So break down. She's going to break it down.

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[Mayim Bialik]

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