Miracles, Time and Love with Jordan Bach | 109

(upbeat music) He says a miracle collapses time because it abolishes the need for him.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

Welcome to synchronicity. My guest this week is Jordan Bach. Go check out Jordan at thebachbook.com. He is a helper of people, someone who has used his own experiences to really offer up himself to other people to help them out. That's really who he is. The reason I am giving a very quick introduction on this is, I mentioned at the end of last episode that I have become Eli, my one and a half year old, darling little boy's primary caretaker 'cause Alexis just took a job, which is, let me just say this, best job ever I have now. However, on top of that, as you may have guessed, I'm still doing my other job, trying to, and I still have this podcast.

So I'm gonna be juggling these things and seeing what kind of falls by the wayside. I'm prioritizing this podcast. I have episode scheduled. I'm actually jumping on one right after I'm done recording this intro. So don't worry about that. I know that's probably what you're interested in, not the other shit that's going on in my life. But bear with me for these things. Luckily, at the beginning of these intros, I rarely prepare anyway. But this week, I really, it's just snuck up on me. I'm doing this the day of the podcast. So send your thoughts and prayers to... Actually, you know what, fuck that.

I don't need the thoughts and prayers. I gotta be honest. I'm really enjoying taking care of Eli every day. It's super fun. He's a really cool, sweet boy. We went to Kinder Music this morning, which is adorable. All these little kids dancing around and being cute. It's fucking amazing. So I really can't complain, but I do wanna still make sure I have time for the things that I wanna do. And the reason I bring this up is not just because you're listening to this and it impacts you if you care to listen to future ones. But I also need to, you might be relating, like maybe you got a lot of shit going on.

Who doesn't have a lot of shit going on? Raise your hand. You're a liar. The truth is, is that everyone has a lot of stuff going on. Sometimes it ramps up as it has done, but sometimes that's just life, right? So what happens, what I've been noticing in myself is just trying to dedicate whatever attention I have while I'm doing something. And this is what's great about having a kid, is when you're with them, you're like, yeah, you can be distracted. Sometimes I am, sometimes I look at my phone, sometimes I do stuff. But for the most part, they suck you into the moment, right? You're there. It's almost inescapable.

You're gonna ignore a kid? Really? No, it's hard to do. So that's a really cool thing about this. And it's taught me to kind of pay attention to the things that I want to invest my attention to. So that becomes easier and easier, at least for me, as I has seemingly less and less time, which is directly related to this episode. And this was an unintentional segue. So one of the things Jordan talks about in this episode is miracles, the course of miracles, specifically. So one of the things about it, I think the course of miracles, which I didn't know this, I guess it's a modern day kind of channeling of Jesus.

So if you're lost there and you're like, fuck no, I'm jumping off, you know, that's cool. Do you know what I mean? This might not be the episode for you. But if you're like, all right, I'm interested, I would like to hear more about that. This very well could be the interested episode for you and you could be interested. So here's the deal. If you can have an imaginary box in your mind, and I learned this from Tom Kenyon, a wonderful sound healer who I was totally skeptical about, found myself in the middle of a situation where I had no fucking idea what was going on. I was actually really impressed by his groundedness and ability to communicate, not bullshit stuff.

And then, so this idea of imaginary boxes, if something doesn't jive with you, it doesn't make sense, doesn't feel right, rubs it the wrong way, not resonating, whatever you wanna say, have an imaginary box. And the goal isn't to just allow whatever belief system or idea or concept to co-opt what you believe, it's that can you tolerate? This is the idea of stretching our boundaries in a permissible, non-harmful way. So the idea of the imaginary box is useful when we're talking about Jesus being channeled by someone quite recently. But one of the things mentioned in course of miracles, which Jordan mentioned, is that love is the genesis of all miracles.

And time ceases to exist when miracles happen. It's independent. So that's what makes some of the stuff have a miraculous quality to it. If you have some two randomly, seemingly randomly connected things happen at the same time, that seems to be an a-temporal phenomenon. That's not happening in time. Which is a very interesting thing 'cause that's what synchronicity is, right? That's what Jung referred to as an a-causal pattern of orderedness, which, come on, Carl, I say this every time, gotta do better than that, super hard to understand. But really what it means is, you know, you're thinking of something, a butterfly landing, or just a butterfly and a butterfly lands right in front of you, classic example, right?

Those things are not linked in time. They are in the sense that it happened in this crystallized moment, but you could, it would be hard to plan that and see that coming, and especially the mind to matter relationship what's going on there anyway. I bring this all up for several reasons. Time is collapsing for me because I have less of it to do the things I want to do. Normally that would stress me out beyond belief and I'd be like, "Ah, I wanna do all these things." But because most of my time is now being spent with my kid and it's just like pure love and amazing, this is the sweetest little creature I've ever seen.

It's incredible. We've been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack. It's incredible. I haven't seen Hamilton yet, but I feel like I have 'cause I've listened to it 25 times. Holy shit, Hamilton is amazing. Anyway, I digress. It's such a loving environment that I'm not abundantly concerned with the other things. Now the flip side of this is Alexis has a job now. So we have other streams of income coming in. So that's also a reliever. So I don't wanna leave anything out here and be like, "Hey man, just like hang out with your kid "and everything will be great." I understand everyone is in a different situation, but find if you can try to devote your time to things you love doing for me, that's my kid.

Eli, Alexis, my family, music, laughing, comedy stuff. That to me is like those are my priorities. So I prioritize those in my life. I really encourage you if you're listening, if you have a list of things that you wanna prioritize, write 'em down and just start prioritizing. That doesn't mean you have to quit your job, do whatever, but anyway, I'm finding it useful. This intro turned into way more than I planned for it to be. I guess I had a lot to say. Well, anyway, that's it. Thank you to everyone who supports synchronicity. Really helps in times like these where I want to be devoting the same amount, if not more time to this.

But we're cool, man, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to do nothing. If you like the show, tell a friend, rate, review, subscribe, donate, Patreon, blah, whatever, do it. Anyway, get into the episode. Without further ado, here is Jordan, bye. (upbeat music) Thanks for coming on.

So happy to be here, thanks for having me.

Yeah, we were just talking about Off Air, this bedtimes album, and I was saying, ah, how do you want to bring it up? Should I bring it up at the end? And you mentioned, you actually started and created this because it was from your own pain. And I was like, oh, rather than trying to weave this in later, that's a really interesting place to start. Because pain is something that we can all relate to and is not pleasant. And we can all agree on that. So I'd love to hear kind of how the genesis of this album related to your pain.

So I was in a relationship that was a very meaningful relationship for me. My prayer prior to getting into this relationship, prior to even finding this person was, I want a relationship that expands my vision of the level of intimacy that's possible for my life. And that relationship came to me. It profoundly expanded my vision of the kind of intimacy that I thought was possible for my life. And so in that sense, it was a great success. And I think when it comes to relationships, if that's our measure of success in relationships, then it helps us see relationships that ended as minded with, from a different perspective, from a perspective of love rather than fear.

And when that relationship ended, I was broken. It really felt like the floor of my life had fallen out from beneath me. And I was at the time, as I am today, a life coach and spiritual teacher. I think I lost you there.

No, no, no, I'm here.

Oh, wow.

I'm here. I'm just crystal fucking clear silence. I'm listening intently.

It is crystal clear silence. Wow. (laughing) So I was then, then, as I am today, a life coach and spiritual teacher, a teacher of spiritual principles for other people. And so it was a difficult time for me to hold myself and other people in that space while also struggling. And so every night, I found as often is the case when you're going through a difficult time. Night time is a lonely time. It's a time of great uncertainty and fear, and you're just laying there alone, especially after having gone to bed with everyone every night for a long time. It was so lonely for me, but I also found that nighttime has this incredible spiritual quality to it.

It's almost like, even though it's dark, the veil has been lifted a bit, and you're more in touch with your emotions, with your creativity, and with your higher power. So I found that there was this incredible presence that was there for me to connect with in the evening. And I found myself writing down these prayers for each day of the week. And I wrote these prayers, Dear Universe, I know that you have a plan for my life that is greater than anything I could dream for myself. Show me how I can live in that dream. And these prayers gave me such comfort. I can't not express to you how much comfort and reassurance those prayers gave me.

And if, funnily enough, a woman I work with, a professional intuitive, aka a psychic, said to me, Jordan, you've been, spirit is telling me you've been writing something that would be of great service to other people. And I had no idea what she was talking about. These were just my personal prayers. And so it took us a while to figure out what they were talking about. But she said very clearly, it's something you do, something you're writing at night, and I said, oh my God, yeah. And so I decided to turn those prayers into a guided meditation album for other people to listen to. And that has become, I get letters every week from people who say, I've been falling asleep to your voice for the past year, for the past two years.

And it's really helped me relax and feel guided. So that, it's just, that experience also taught me that it's amazing to create products and to make a living by doing something that's so incredibly personal and also that can potentially help people.

Yeah, man, that to me is, there's so much in there. There was so much in there from transmuting pain into some alchemical process that helps other people to the power of solitude and the magic of night to the power of prayer. I mean, there's so much stuff I would like to touch on, but you also piqued my interest at the end there because this is something that I routinely think about as related to products or services or things we can do that help other people and how that fits into our lives, both professionally, spiritually, you finance. So it's such an interesting time where all of this stuff is happening.

And I like you, it's great to be able to do this in some way, way, shape, or form as a living, but the feedback that you get from people who you know it's actually helping, that's why it's hard to stop. Because I would, anyone, I mean, I would caution anyone who's thinking like, oh yeah, I'll just create a meditation product. I'll just do this. It's not like as easy or as seamless as one might like to believe, even with great strategies and great knowledge, it really does require kind of that personal deep soul digging that you got a heavy dose of in your relationship or a lack of relationship, but it is this very, very interesting phenomenon that I'm seeing happen in so many ways.

And I think it touches on this concept that you went into, which is taking your personal suffering and your personal tragedies and your personal fears and insecurities and really cultivating that multi-perspectival view that you were talking about and trying to see how can this be useful not only for me personally, but for other people. I mean, I'm curious too, just to go back a little bit, how did you get on this path? I mean, how does one grow up and get fall into the path of being a motivational speaker, a life coach and someone who's just naturally kind of going inside to help the world, how did that happen?

I think you said it when you use the word naturally. For me, all things spiritual, psychological and esoteric have always in hindsight, come naturally to me. And it was that hindsight. It took me to get to a place of hindsight to realize that. I graduated from college and really had no idea what to do with my life. I was really stuck, I was going to job interviews and these corporate job interviews and saying to myself, something about this does not feel right. Something about this doesn't feel right. And after one particularly awful interview, I walked out of a door. I walked out of that office building in West Chelsea, New York and said, I'll never go to another job interview again and I didn't.

But during that time, I also had no money. So I said to myself, I was living on $100 a week and saying to myself, what do I do? What do I do with my life? So I really started to search for answers to that. And I went deep within myself. And I remember writing in a journal, in my journal, dear God. I know that I'm here for a reason. Show me the gifts, show me my gifts in which you trust. And very quickly, I began to get a person coming to me for counseling. And little signs along the way that pointed me to realize that I've always had an interest in these things. And I needed to go a little deeper.

And so I just started with a great amount of trepidation. And uncertainty. And that little thing called what the heck am I doing? Yeah. But at the same time, even with that trepidation, it felt right. And it felt like I was supposed to be doing it. And even though it wasn't easy, per se, there was a thread of ease along the way. Doors did seem to open. And I think that looking at your life and seeing where are the threads of ease? What do I do that may require hard work and may present some challenges? But when does it feel easy? When I'm working or creating or serving people, where is that sense of ease?

So for me, that sense of ease and natural feeling has led the way. So when you were, you know, you're broke, you're finally getting some traction in terms of people coming to you, you're able to exercise your gifts that you actively prayed for. And I would love to touch on prayer. We'll definitely get to that. What were some of the external resources that you use? So I've seen you mention a course in miracles, but who were some of the teachers? I know you mentioned at the event, you mentioned Jesus. And I think I was like the one person to woo. And I think there was, you know, and I mentioned afterwards that I'm Jewish.

And you're like, Oh, Jesus, great. Me too. So I'm interested, like what modalities or resources kind of helped lead you to uncovering your gifts. I mean, you're praying, you know, intuitively. I mean, just so people know, like prayer is obviously used in Judaism. And I don't know exactly what you I grew up perform. Prayer wasn't like this magical force that was talked about. Like it's going to actually have energy behind it and change it. It was pretty secular from where I came from. My conception of prayer is obviously drastically changed over the years. But I'm curious, like, how did this kind of manifest and evolve from what you were seeing outside in the world and what was resonating with you?

Well, I was raised by two atheists, despite, you know, my, my grandfather escaping the Holocaust and being a Holocaust survivor. And certainly my Jewish heritage is very important to me and my family. Both of my parents are atheists. They are non-believers. And my father at the dinner table growing up would repeatedly say anyone who has religious or spiritual beliefs is intellectually feeble and seeking comfort against the harsh reality of life. Right. Right. And so I called myself an atheist through high school. And but yet I had these sort of, you could say, paranormal experiences all throughout my life, especially in my early childhood, when I could very clearly sense a presence in and around me.

I remember one day waking up from a nap and my grandmother lived with me until the day she died and she, I intuitively, I was alone and I intuitively knew that she was in the basement and that I needed to get to her. And I had this sudden fear come over me because I was still in the crib at the time. Yeah, wow. And I had this sudden fear come over me if I'm alone and when you're one foot tall or how tall you are, getting, you know, all the way from, from the second floor down to the basement is a, is an, is an odyssey is a fearful odyssey. And so I was so scared, but then suddenly this, I would call it a voice, but it was more of a knowing, of a energetic impression that felt like it was saying to me, you are not alone.

It's okay. You're safe. You can go. So I climbed out of the crib when I went down to the basement to find my grandmother, and I'll never forget that day. It was a bright, sunny day. The sun was coming through my bedroom window and that feeling, that sense that I am always guided. I am always safe and I am always loved, has abided with me my whole life. And so experiences like that have, have, have, have, haven't been for me about belief, because as I said, I was, it's through high school, because intellectually I said, I believed what I was told. Right. But my experience was very different. And as we move into this age, some people call it the age of Aquarius.

Um, we are finding ourselves in, in, in, in a time where experience is more important than belief. I'm, yeah, I mean, I would, I would hope the true, I mean, when I think about that statement, what, what I really think about is that that has probably always been the case, but unfortunately, over the past few thousand years, at least that we can look back upon, that has not been the case. It, it, believe has completely subjugated experiential wisdom. So I'm, I'm so interested. What was it, how did you kind of reconcile the experiences, experiences that you had related to intuition, knowingness, higher presences, um, and this, you know, what sounds like pretty rigorous intellectualizing the impossibility of there being a higher power was just something you compartmentalize.

And also I, I would like in some way to, to also talk about you being gay, because I read in your bio that you came out at 12, which is, I mean, I've known people who were gay growing up, who we knew they were gay, just from when they were kids, and they never told me when it came out much later. But that's a pretty big thing to come out at 12. So how are all these things kind of like revolving in your consciousness and your, your awareness as you were growing up? Cause this is a lot. I mean, it's, it's a tremendous capacity to hold this. Well, to answer your first question, I think when you take a really intellectually vigorous approach to matters of the metaphysical, you can pretty quickly.

Uh, no, that we cannot know for sure. So that's the end of that. Um, and so really, I mean, if you're truly a scientist of spirit, then you know that you cannot know, and you can't call yourself a scientist if you say that something doesn't exist because it can't be proven. Unfortunately, though, that is a predominant scientific paradigm right now. I mean, it's, it's fading. It's fading, but still let's, let's be as much as we, we see the developments across, you know, the, the scientific fields, especially with quantum physics and things like that, I mean, you know, look at our popular cultural scientists, I really enjoy Neil deGrasse Tyson, but, you know, he will gladly tell you that any of this other stuff that we can't empirically prove is essentially poppycock.

You know what I mean? Like it's, it is fading. I totally am with you on that, but still, I mean listeners of this podcast are not going to have any objection to what we're saying, but, you know, flip through any others, uh, people will certainly, you know, take this idea. And I know this isn't maybe the conversation for them, but I always think about that we do have these kind of opposing paradigms kind of merging right now. Mm hmm. Yeah. I, I think we should, um, we should be weary of people who are too smug about knowing the unknowable. Agreed. That is a really, that does kind of settle that I, I totally agree.

I totally agree. But you know what, when it comes to people in other fields, talking about their work, I really deeply respect people who aren't glib, you know, who don't run their mouths about things that they haven't truly investigated. Right. Right. Um, I think it was Wendell Holmes who said condemnation without investigation will leave mankind in everlasting ignorance. So pretty accurate. So yeah. So I have investigated this with my full heart and mind and whatever intellectual capacity I have. I've investigated it and I cannot know for sure. Um, but I know that when I have opened my mind, um, I've seen different things.

Yeah. Um, I just opened my mind. And so that's really what it was for me. It wasn't sort of an intellectual assent to a set of, of beliefs. It was an experience of greater understanding. It was an experience of greater love and greater peace for me. Um, and that is enough proof for me, um, as a single human being. Well, and that should, I think for all of us be the final arbiter of what we put our faith in or what faith comes from, because I see this a lot, you know, I was having a conversation with someone yesterday who was also at the event. Um, young Pueblo Diego. And we were talking about, you know, sometimes people will come to him with, with very big life questions that he fully knows he just doesn't have the answer too for that person. And what he does is he says, Hey, you know, uh, what you need to do is find some modality, some practice, something that you can do regularly that works for you.

That's all his advice is, and I said Diego, and it sounds like this is what you're saying too is anyone who has a quick answer for you on exactly what's going to solve your life right away. And it can be a broad concept, like unconditional love, but like a specific thing that you're going to do and that's going to fix all your problems. That's you accepting someone else's interpretation of what your reality is. And that is not the message that at least I've examined through all of the wisdom traditions and great mystics throughout the world. No one says that. No one's like, yeah, yeah, do just this one thing that I say to do.

And then you're going to get there. So it's, it's fascinating to me though, that you were able to kind of hold the intel, because I didn't grow up with atheists for parents. We didn't grow up particularly religious and I wasn't told to believe or not believe anything, but I can imagine if I did, you know, those are your, that's your dad, you know, your dad is a smart guy who, you know, has a wealth of rich experiences, so to not succumb immediately. And you say it's because of experiences, but I wonder how many people have those experiences and still succumb to kind of the intellectualizing of the things that you kind of investigated and found to be true, you know.

Yeah, I think an important part of adulthood, different cultures, and different societies have different ages at which they believe we become adults. Right. I think you become an adult when you recognize that your psychology is not that of either of your parents, it is your own. And to really clearly delineate your psychology and your experience from that of your parents is very important. And that for me, I moved out of home at 14. Oh, wow. No shit. Yeah, to go to boarding school. Oh, wow. So that really helped me, that really helped me. And should I have children, I would also encourage them to leave the home earlier.

Because I think looking back that that was one of the best things that happened to me. It enabled me to really have a life experience of my own. And not through the filter of my parents' psychology. Right. So that's that, man. Yeah, no, it's just I'd not to to hark into it. I just I think it's cool that you maintained this sense of independence, curiosity, investigation, you know, coming from a familial paradigm where that wasn't emphasized. Because it's so often that we hear just the opposite is true and later in light. Certainly some people, as you you mentioned, you know, disengage from their parental unit psychology and can come up with their own opinions.

But it sounds like you were able to do that at a pretty, pretty young age. I mean, so when you were when you were at boarding school, how did that differ from your experiences back home in the sense of obviously you have some degree of independence? Like what was the qualitative difference for you kind of, you know, enjoying or seeing the value in it so much? Because I know people, my dad went to military school and boarding school. He has value in all of those experiences, but I don't think he would, he didn't like them, you know what I mean? And I know a lot of people who don't, some people do. So I'm curious, what was it about that kind of shift at that time in your life that you enjoyed so much?

Being around new people and being around people from, from many different countries and speaking many different languages and different cultures and backgrounds and having to interact with them day and night and on my own. Yeah. That's a powerful experience to have starting at 14. Yeah, totally man. I can only relate in a similar way for five weeks when I was 15. I went to a summer program at my eventual alma mater, Berkeley, and I took acid for the first time. And it was all my own for five weeks there. It was just like a completely mind-bending alternate reality recognition of freedom, not only from a cultural standpoint, but from like a mind standpoint, from a conscious.

The doors of perception open. Yes, they were clean, so to speak. I'm curious, how did you get into Jesus, man? How did you get into Jesus? I got into Jesus because I started reading a course in miracles. And I think when it comes to finding your path or finding spiritual tools or traditions that are potentially transformative for you and your life, they come to you. They show up. And if we are open to experiencing the tool or the path, we can sense if it's right for us. And so a course in miracles came along and I intuitively felt that it was right for me. And as I began to practice the workbook and read the text, I experienced greater peace and joy and serenity and more love in my life.

And so it works for me. A course in miracles says that it's not a form of teaching for everyone, that it's not made for everyone. And so is that true about many other paths and traditions? Yeah, pretty much all of them, I would say, not for everyone. It's pretty clear. What have you come to kind of... Jesus means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. My experiences with Jesus are very specific to me and weren't brought about culturally or contextually out in the world. So coming... I'm just coming to Jesus. When you started to get tuned into Jesus through a course in miracles, what was that like? And then what have you learned experientially since coming into contact with whatever that energy or whatever... Well, define Jesus. I think that's worthwhile. I think what's so powerful about how I grew up is that I didn't have any previous spiritual or religious training, which is to say I had no ideas. I had blocked myself from these ideas so completely that I really had no idea what Jesus was or what the whole thing was. So when I actually opened myself to it, I saw it in a way that was not colored by any previous ideas. Does that make sense? It makes complete fucking sense, man. Complete sense.

In a course in miracles, Jesus comes across as a very wise, very wise teacher. He said, "Many bitter idols have been made of me when I came only to be an elder brother to the world." And that is true. Many negative hell and brimfire versions of Jesus exist today. And for me, Jesus is a really powerful spiritual presence in my life. In the New Testament, he says, "I am with you always." And about 2,000 years later, in a course in miracles, he clarified and said, "When I said I am with you always, I meant it literally." And so as a person who feels a connection to his teachings, a profound connection to his teachings, when I simply vibrate his name in my mind, I can feel a comforting presence.

My friend, Maryam Williamson, through whom I actually discovered a course in miracles, having read her book Every Day Grace in 2009. I was up late one night and couldn't sleep. There it is, nighttime again. At nighttime. And I couldn't sleep and I had been to Strand Bookstore and went into the spiritual section and got a stack of books and brought them home and that they were by my bed. And I just pulled a random one out and started reading one night. And it was Maryam Williamson's book Every Day Grace. And in it, she speaks of the principles of a course in miracles. Of which she's a teacher. And it really was an opening of a door for me. I thought, "Wow, here is a Jewish woman, a woman who you cannot call intellectually feeble when you read her or hear her speak." And she was speaking about God with such deep reverence and awe-inspiring love and intelligence and eloquence that it blew me away. And it's interesting because the other night, I went to her lecture here in New York City. She lectures every Tuesday in New York City.

And she led everybody in prayer and she said, "Close your eyes and think about your higher power, whatever that is for you." And I thought of Jesus. And suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder in my mind. I just strongly felt this hand on my shoulder. And a few seconds later, Maryam said, "You may feel a hand on your shoulder." And I just smiled. What are the chances? And she and I are close friends and we have the same love for the course and for Jesus. And that was a magical moment for me to know that I have a spiritual presence in my life that I can call on whenever I need. And it will be there for me.

Yeah. And what you just described is faith. And faith is a very weird, stigmatized term. And I love that you described when you can hold and vibrate Jesus or Christ in your consciousness, how you can feel that. What's weird is I felt that before I knew you spoke earlier about this retrospective ability. And when you're actually going through experiences, sometimes they don't line up until years, decades down the line. And you can see that these things are actually always with you. And some may say that's just a clever narrative. And we're just able to weave together these various chaotic energies and tell us a very convincing story. I agree and completely relate to what you're talking about. If I were to recount the countless experiences, truthfully, of having some type of synchronicity or energetic awareness, like when you felt the touching of your shoulder, we would never stop talking because I have so many of them. I love that. And I love that you can hear when people really experience these things. It's not a tone of voice, but there's something below it. There's something that is carried underneath it. That is the actual energetic vibration of what it is. And that's what I refer to as faith. And that is something that is actually unshakeable. You may have a dark night of the soul. You may come out of contact with that feeling presence at times, but that element of faith is just something no one is going to convince you.

Yeah. And you know what? No, I have repeatedly, I do repeatedly say to myself that one of the greatest gifts I've been given in this life is the gift of faith. In hindsight, I have been a man of faith my entire life. I have always, I have always felt that presence. I have always felt a sense that no matter what is going on, on the surface of the water of life, there may be choppy waves. There is a deep ocean of peace beneath me. I have always felt that. And in fact, that's the image that came to me when I was going through that difficult breakup. I was walking down the street one night and I thought, you know, life is choppy right now. The waves are harsh. I'm being thrown about. But I feel an ocean of peace beneath me. And that is knowing that that is there is conviction. And conviction says, of course, in miracles is the mother of miracles. When you have conviction, that is faith in things unseen, that is faith in things unseen. Yeah. That's when you can work miracles, which is to say you can feel love and express love.

It's so true, man. It's really, let me ask you this, what happens because you're very upfront about your imperfections being human. When you get hit, whether it's a breakup or whatever it is, where just you get into the suffering, laden experiences and the oscillation happens to be at a low point, you know, where the lessons start coming in and we all know those are the greatest times or opportunity, but they just objectively feel shitty. What do you do in those? What have you learned to do? What do you naturally do? What was maybe your tendency to do? What happens when you're caught in those places? Because I know a lot of people listening, whenever we're talking about these concepts of unconditional love, faith, miracles, if you're in that space, you're getting it and you're raising your hand and going, Oh, shit, yeah, fuck you, praise the Lord. But if you're in these very kind of sticky, what I refer to as sticky situations, you may not be feeling the love right now. What do you do when you're stuck in those places? I refer to a lesson in a course in miracles that says all things or lessons God would have me learn. And part of that lesson is holding the not so good feelings. Grief has been a master teacher for me. It has softened my heart and made me a more compassionate, more empathetic, more understanding person. So living a life of faith and deep meaning and purpose doesn't mean that it's going to be a fairground your entire life.

That it's going to be all bliss. Certainly. Right. So yeah, it's about being where you are and being softer, being softer and allowing your experiences, both joy and sadness, both both the, you know, the heights of grace and the depths of misery, allowing these moments to, they can do one of two things. They can harden you. They can harden the soil of your heart or they can till the soil of your heart and make you softer and more fertile. I love that analogy. I have never heard that and I love that analogy. That's, that's, that's really what it is. I mean, okay, so we, I get the general sense that you're a pretty optimistic and believe in the grace and love that supports our reality and we don't need to drill down and examine exactly why that's the case. But what do you do? And I, I'm just to let you know I'm, I'm, I'm with you on that, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here. What do you do? And I think the answer may be a little bit in what you just said, but what do you do when you look out at the world today and see just the tremendous amount of suffering caused not only by natural disasters, which have been happening for time immemorial, but also manmade suffering and political suffering and, you know, genocide with the Herohindya, all of this stuff. What do you, how do you personally process looking out at the world and then holding that? How do you deal with that?

I saw a beautiful movie called The Shack recently and it's based on the best-selling book and The Shack was so powerful for me because the protagonist in the film is a father whose daughter was ostensibly raped and murdered and he loses faith and he has an experience where he meets God and he says to God, where were you when that happened to my daughter? You weren't there and God grabs his hand and says, "I was always there. I never left you. I never left her." And that really, it makes me want to cry right now and it just brought full chills to my body, that scene in that movie and they're standing in the kitchen. It was very, very powerful for me and looking, you know, I was shaken by what happened in Las Vegas recently. God was there.

God was there. God was there. God was there in the people who were rescuing other people. God was there in the minds, people who were throwing themselves on top of other people to shield them from bullets. God was there in our shared love and humanity and that is what is so important to remember. There is a lesson in the course that is very simple and it is something you are to repeat to yourself throughout the day on that particular day of the lesson and it is I am the light of the world. Each of us is the light of the world. In moments like these where there's such great suffering and grief and panic, when we shift from thinking, I am a victim of the world, to I am the light of the world. It changes our perception of what's happening and it changes our behavior. It empowers us with an ability not just to send thoughts and prayers, but also to make changes, to change how we are living our lives, to change the laws that govern our society, our ability to really sink deeply into and claim our true identity, which is that each of us is indeed the light of the world. It's not arrogant to think that we're the light of the world. It's humble because we're accepting God's will for us, which is to be a safe harbor for other people, to be a miracle worker in the lives of others. That's not arrogant. That's humble. I am the light of the world. This week it has strengthened in me my own resolve to help create a more just and free and safe society and to really just connect more deeply with other people, which is what we're doing here today and what so many of us are doing around the world today. There's so much focus on the terrible things that are happening. But of course, in miracles says, look at the crucifixion, but do not dwell on it. That is to say, look, you must not turn away from the horrors of the world, commonly called spiritual bypassing. We must look at the horrors of the world, but we must not dwell on them. We must see them for what they are. But hold a vision, hold that conviction for a world that is full of the love that we feel so deeply. Yeah, man, beautifully, beautifully said. And I love that your answer is this is what it is to me too. When we see things out in the world, it's really easy to immediately want to say, well, we'll just take the Las Vegas thing, right? We want to immediately say for those of us who consider ourselves progressive or, you know, liberal, you know, gun control, gun control, gun control. I've learned over the past, however, X amount of mass shootings to temper that kind of impulse, not because I don't believe we maybe need more gun control, but because if we can shift the focus away from out there external into ourselves of tempering that reactivity, that anger, that rage that can well up when we see such a horrible thing and then equate it to an ideology, that's us really taking that positive step of acknowledging that we're the light of the world. Because it's so easy to say, well, if only this was changed, then all would be right. But I think that kind of skirts the issue, which puts this hyper focus of where we are now, which is we as a culture, we as individuals, we as a collective are dealing with so many shadow aspects of our consciousness right now that if we do what you're saying, not only in the external circumstances of the world, but if this energetic shadow aspect, if we turn away from it, that's it. We're done. And then we will be consumed by it and that will be it. But if we do have the ability to look at it, face it, sit with it, not dwell on it, but look at it and then take actions based on that, I think that's actually the route to our continued kind of evolutionary success as people as souls. So I love that your answer kind of encapsulates what is I think the correct response at this point, I'm confident in saying that when these tragedies happen out in the world and we can view them. So really, man, that's awesome. Thank you so much for saying that. Yeah, it is, you know, I we need sanity now more than ever. The morning that I woke up to the news of the Las Vegas shooting, I was shaken. And it helped me to look at my own life just a few days ago and take a deeper inventory of the places where I need to bring more sanity, more deep sanity into my life. Murderers are insane.

They've forgotten who they are. They have forgotten who other people are. And it is a call to really deepen our level of sanity, not just individually, but also as a society. The great thing about America is that we are born of a vision that all men are created equal, the first true American ideal. And that has been more of an that was more of an aspirational ideal. Yeah, it was a really put fully into practice. Then it was a reality as the very men who wrote that were slave owners. But it is a it is an ideal that we are the struggle for equality and freedom and justice is a it has been the inheritance of every American since 1776.

And so if we deepen our level of sanity, we'll arrive at that moment earlier rather than later. It's a matter of time and the amount of time it takes and the amount of suffering it takes is entirely up to us. That's right. That's right. That's right. And that lines up with time not being as real or as linear as we like to believe it is. And if we can actually fundamentally change our hearts and our minds, then we can actually enact change in physical time space. Yeah, you know, and you seem to be the guy who would be interested in what I'm about to say, which is Jesus. Jesus talks very specifically about time as a learning device, right, in a course in miracles. He speaks of time as just that, a learning device. It is a sort of classroom and a miracle, which is an expression of love. That's what a miracle is. It's an expression of love. And we can work miracles in the lives in our lives and in the lives of others by expressing love. It is that simple.

He says a miracle collapses time because it abolishes the need for it. That's fucking awesome. There's a little, there's a little something to chew on that we have time so that we can learn, so that we can learn that we are one with everyone else. And with everything we see that what we see is what we have projected outward. We see that someone else is bad. It's because we have on some level judged ourselves as guilty in our projecting that onto someone or something else. If we see ourselves as fundamentally good, we also see that in other people. We see a world that is a reflection of our inner state. That is not only accurate but fundamentally true.

And I think it fits in quite nicely with the idea of karma or Maya in Vedic or Samsara in Buddhist traditions, which this world in which we live is not illusory in the sense that it doesn't have meaning and there's no reason for it and it's not real, but it is kind of this karmic ground where we work through in time certain issues that maybe it's worthwhile for us to work through as differentiated points of consciousness. So I think this all kind of fits together quite nicely if you really think about it. Yes, and this is what this is the ultimate goal of a course in miracles and any great faith or wisdom tradition. A course in miracles, Jesus calls it the atonement, which is a traditionally Judeo-Christian term, which is to say the at one mint to realize that we are at one, the world is at one with our perception and miracles abolish the need for time because we recognize that we are one in the moment of performing a miracle or expressing love.

This puts a very interesting slant on the name of this show, which is Synchronicity, which is what Jung referred to as an a-causal pattern of orderedness because he was that type of dude who would say something like that for something ridiculous. But I think if you look at it, because I now the functional practical value of synchronicities at this point in my life is not to inspire all, but as sort of a form of validation, I believe that we could consider those miracles as well. And synchronicities do transcend time and space, as many of us are aware, and if you note when they happen, it is an expression of love. So that's quite interesting, my friend. Yeah, I totally 100% agree, and I've never thought of it.

Me neither. Thank you for that. Thank you. Let's do the George Costanza and leave it on a high note. I end with three questions, and then one longer little one. You'll hear, so let's do it. Jordan, and this has just been so much fun, and it's just always such a treat to get to speak to someone like you who's just steeped in this stuff and lives it every day. So thanks again for coming on. I hope we can hang out. Oh, we will. We will. I live in the Hudson Valley, so I'm in the city like two, three times a month minimum, so we'll get together. Yeah, we'll link, man. Of course. Okay, what's your favorite color?

Purple. What's your favorite number? 18. Cool. Why 18? I like the way it feels, and one plus eight equals nine. Okay, good. We're on the same page. Just just curious. What's your favorite animal? I would say a an elephant. Cool. Very cool. All right, last question. What's a practical tip that you could share with listeners that's helped you in your life? Prayer. Prayer is not a is prayer is a media is the medium of communication between the creator and the created. It is a gift given us not by religion, but by God is always available to us and to be able to communicate with that force, that presence, that higher power that I call God is such a it's it's such a transformative experience to know that you do have a guide at all times with its hand on your shoulder and you can communicate with it and receive impressions.

And the more you do it, the more natural it feels to you and the deeper your faith becomes. I love it. I love it, man. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you so much for doing this. Thanks again. All right. We'll be in touch. Bye bye. [Music] Thank you for listening past the music. I hope you enjoyed that episode. Again, you can check out Jordan at the Bach book.com. It's pretty straightforward what you can do there. Speaking of music, listening past it. I know I've been saying I'm trying to try. You already hear. You're right here. I'm about to say because planning on releasing an EP in October boom didn't happen planning on releasing an EP in November. We'll see if it happens. I got to navigate this whole childcare situation. I want to put a UI and daycare for like a day or two socialize and give me some time, but I got to figure that out. So hopefully within the next month, I can have that sorted and really start fleshing out some time for what's going on. In case you haven't told this, synchronicity is my therapy session where I just tell you what I'm going through. Also, please feel free to email me what you're going through. People know you email me. Noah@syncpodcast.com.

I will write back. I listen. I talk. If I'm overwhelmed, then I'll give you a short response, which is all really a way, but I typically respond. Everyone knows that. Thank you to Patrick Nemtik for getting this episode out as he does every week for the past every week. That's it. I will see you next week.