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Anecdotal Evidence with Daniel Johnson, MD

Our lives as we live and experience them can be thought of as the stories we're writing every day. In his work as a psychiatrist, Daniel Johnson, MD has been deeply moved by the healing stories that have been shared with him over the years. Join him from his home in Asheville, NC where he shares long-form conversatons exploring the interesting and inspiring aspects to life's growth. His guests include practitioners of the healing arts as well as clients and others with compelling healing stories. Every life matters, every story is valuable - the evidence may connect you to the next chapter you're writing in your own life.
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Anecdotal Evidence with Daniel Johnson, MD
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Dec 24, 2016

I'm super excited to send you a Christmas present from the Anecdotal Evidence.  This is my conversation with the local musician, Chris Wilhelm.  

I sat down with Chris way back in February of this year for a conversation about music and the healing pathways into our being that it opens up.  It was special for me in that Chris and I share a lot in common.  We're both the oldest of three brothers, we have some common musical interests in Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and we both have relocated to Asheville to call home.  We get into all of that in some detail during the conversation.  

In case you're not yet familiar with his music, I highly encourage you to check him out online at Chris Wilhelm music, and also with his recent excellent band, the Wilhelm Brothers.  The Wilhelm Brothers were a unique band consisting of Chris on vocals and guitar, and his friend (not brother) Kristof on cello and vocals.  I discovered them from a local show and fell in love with the songs right away.  

As we were planning our podcast recording with the Wilhelm brothers, life threw curveballs at us as the band decided to go on hiatus after exhaustive touring over the past few years.  It was a time of transition and there was definitely some sadness in the air as they had a special thing going.  

Fortunately Chris is carrying on with his music and was gracious to sit down with me solo.  In our conversation he shares how music opened up healing channels in his life and has carried him through difficult experiences.   He is frank about how he has found success as a musician through creative ideas around booking gigs, and staying consistent with his efforts.  He even gets into some of his personal process for writing songs.  Real good stuff in there.  

But the real gift of this recording are the three songs that Chris played for me at the end of the episode.  He played "Trail of the Lonesome Pine", "Long Live Your Tomorrows", and "I'll See You in St. Augustine".  These are gorgeous songs; the recording came out great and I'm very happy to be able to share these with you as a special Christmas present.  

Dec 12, 2016

Thanks for checking out Anecdotal Evidence.  

I'm very excieted to share this week's episode with my conversation with Dr. Angela Hind.  I had the good fortune of meeting Angela earlier this year after reading an article about fluoride in the local Mountain Xpress.  Fluoridating our water supply is a very controversial issue that stirs up charged debate.  It is an interesting issue to explore because there are strong opinions on either side of the argument.  It represents a polarizing issue that makes it difficult to foster intelligent discussion without devolving into fruitlessly angry rhetoric.  For an example of this, check out the 125 comments at the end of the above-referenced article.  

And as the level of discourse in our country has taken an ugly turn from this year's election and from our increasingly isolated lives, it marks a symbolic issue to see if we can explore healthy discussion. Our response to this challenge reflects how we respond to the crises that face us as a society.  In our conversation we explore some of this, as well as some of the controversy regarding genetic modification of our natural world and our food supply.  

Moreover, Angela shares her personal journey with illness and having to find her healing path.  She also shares how this changed her medical practice from that of a clinical hospitalist to one of an educator and consultant.  Her unique pathway which she had to carve out herself serves as inspiration to me in finding how to have a meaningful medical practice in a world of an increasingly dehumanizing medical system.

Jun 1, 2016


For the next installment from the series on my recent trip to India, I'd like to share my personal experience with these emotions in Vrindavan.

AE022 - 9 Emotions in Vrindavan

Vrindavan is the ancient Indian city where it's said that the Hindu Lord Krishna spent his childhood days.  There are many temples dedicated to Krishna in Vrindavan and we had the opportunity to experience these temples as a place of living sacrament.  Devotees crowded into the temple to chant, read sacred texts and leave offerings to the male form Krishna, and the female form Radha.  

In our Insight India 2016 trip we had the fortune to experience this city firsthand.  Our homework assignment during the trip was to reflect on our experience up to that point through the lens of examining our emotions according to the rasa classification system.  I found it to be a useful exercise for exploration and recorded a mini-episode that I'm sharing with you here.  The YouTube video for this episode includes the video segment of the recording., showing the numerous monkeys that co-inhabited the ashram where we stayed.  This includes one brief clip of a monkey walking right past me as I was recording - fear and wonder captured live!    

Looking back on the experience now it's been interesting for me to note how my emotions associated with the experience there have changed in character in various capacities.  I think this is a useful metaphor for observing how our emotions change in character with time.  Taking the time to tune into the emotional disturbances of the mind gives us an opportunity to use our intelligence to determine what caused these disturbances.  It also teaches us pathways for resolving these emotional disturbances based on our previous experiences.  These are referred to often in the psychological world as coping skills.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode.  Namaste.

May 23, 2016

This is the first of two lectures given by Siddhartha Krishna to our Insight India group.  The lecture was given on March 19, 2016.  Here he introduces the ancient Indian philosophy of the Vedas, and what relevance it may have to all of us.  

Jan 25, 2016

Rob Wergin shares how he arrived in Asheville to practice his unique approach to the process of transformation.  He opens up frankly about the difficulties and struggles he faced that led him to discover deeper meanings to his own life.  It's a compelling story that points to the great mystery of our human condition, and I hope you enjoy what he shared.  

Jan 4, 2016

0:00    Intro
7:00    Who's Invited to the Table
11:03  Discovering we're unique
17:36  Design and a Calling 
23:39  Three Quarter Time
29:20  Coming to Asheville
36:38  Congregational Challenges
42:52  Creating a Respite
55:55.5  Growth and New challenges
1:02:14  Outro

 

Nov 16, 2015

"Cosmic Conversations" is a book of interviews conducted by the astronomer and physicist Stephan Martin. For this episode Dan and Stephabn have their own cosmic conversation about man's search for meaning and how it fits into our health journey. .

Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:10 Stargazing in Florida
00:14:07 Elaborations on Allurement
00:21:44 Physics and Language as Limiters
00:31:10 Psi and the Placebo Effect
00:39:02 Science and Academia meet Spirituality
00:49:21 The Zero-Point Field and Continuous Creation
01:02:23 The Ongoing Wonder
01:13:00 Outro

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