John Sherman Podcast

A Worldwide Meeting - July 9, 2011

"It is really important to see that looking at yourself is not a psychological exercise. It is not intended to produce -- and it does not produce and it cannot produce -- a direct effect on the symptom picture that has appeared within your life. The only effect looking at yourself has is to render absurd the whole project of defending yourself from your life. The only thing the attempt to get a glimpse of yourself does is to close that gap of alienation from the life. And once that's finished, then anything you do within the content of your life to straighten things out will certainly be much more effective." John Sherman

Complete recording of a Worldwide Online Meeting with John Sherman broadcast live from Ojai, California on July 9, 2011. 

MP3 File

Length: 1 h 45 min
File size: 25 MB

Interview with John Sherman - July 19, 2011

"I am convinced that the moment of terror that strikes almost all of us at birth sets us in a relationship with life that is antagonistic, distrustful, and alienated, and opens a wound of disaffection that keeps us forever apart and fearful of our own life. That wound is the actual cause of all the misery and trouble that follows." John Sherman

Complete recording of an interview broadcast live from Chapel Hill, North Carolina on July 19, 2011. John Sherman is interviewed by Trip Overholt and John Troy for their radio show Conversations with Avant-Garde Sages. 

MP3 File

Length: 59 min
File size: 14.04 MB

Open House Meeting - June 22, 2011

"If I can speak to anybody at all in a way that is uncomplicated, simple, direct and clean enough for them to hear it, so that they can hear this one simple suggestion to turn their attention to see if they cannot get the direct experience of the reality of their own nature, of what it feels like to be that person, they will automatically try to do it. This act is just so simple and straightforward, so lacking in any qualification whatsoever: you don't have to believe anything, you don't have to disbelieve anything, you don't have to do any practice and you don't have to stop any of your practices. All that's needed is that you take one fraction of a second to see if you cannot get a taste of what it feels like to be you. Anybody who tries this must succeed. You can't fail in the effort to get a taste of what it feels like to be you. After all, it's you. It's not awareness, or consciousness, or god, or silence, etc. It's you. It is my conviction that anyone who hears this suggestion will try it and, having tried it, will certainly succeed. Over time, the end of the alienation from their own life is certain and sanity prevails." John Sherman

Complete recording of an Online Open House Meeting with John Sherman broadcast live from Ojai, California on June 22, 2011.

MP3 File

Length: 1 h 15 min
File size: 26 MB

Open House Meeting - June 15, 2011

"We seek to free ourselves of the fear of life, which has ruined all our previous efforts to be helpful to anyone, including ourselves, and the truth is that before we can be of much help to those around us, we have to recover from the effects of the fear ourselves. We need to see that during that process of recovery the sense of having been opened to the suffering of humanity can be very intense, but it will pass. To really be of help, we can't be insane." John Sherman

Complete recording of an Online Open House Meeting with John Sherman broadcast live from Ojai, California on June 15, 2011. 

MP3 File

Length: 55 min
File size: 13 MB

Open House Meeting - June 8, 2011

"There is no way to make this suggestion more attractive to the individual mind. This suggestion is simple beyond any way to even denote its simplicity. This act requires only one thing: the intent to turn attention inward to try to get the direct experience of the reality of our nature. That intent just has to arise, and that's all. It doesn't matter whether that intent arises and is met with distaste, or fear, or dismissal. If the intent arises, the looking will occur and, if the looking occurs, the end is certain. I do the best I can to find more palatable and understandable ways to present this act to people, but the fundamental thing is to bring the suggestion itself directly to those who can hear it -- and watch what happens. It's not to make this suggestion pretty -- or even ugly -- but just to find a way to suggest it and to have it heard by the person. And the suggestion is heard without the need to wrap it up in any kind of consideration for what the person's own psychology might make of it when this suggestion is heard." John Sherman

Complete recording of an Online Open House Meeting with John Sherman broadcast live from Ojai, California on June 8, 2011. 

MP3 File

Length: 1h 1 min
File size: 14.49 MB