Teaching AI to love, the physics of unconditional love, and telepathy with non-speaking autistic people all come together in this lively Buddha at the Gas Pump conversation with neuroscientist and futurist Julia Mossbridge. In this wide-ranging dialogue, we explore unconditional love as a real, foundational force in the universe and what it means for consciousness, time, technology, trauma, and disclosure.

Julia describes her working model of universal love as “that which connects,” a fundamental force more basic than space, time, matter, and energy. She explains how unconditional love is the human emotional and motivational state that arises when we become directly aware of this ever-present universal love, and why that experience paradoxically makes us more motivated to improve the world even though “nothing needs to change.” Along the way, she and Rick unpack the difference between unconditional and conditional love, the pitfalls of spiritual bypassing, and the limits of “purification” models in spirituality and healing.

They then turn to the ethics and possibilities of “loving AI”: can we create AI systems and robots that genuinely support human well-being and help people access unconditional love, instead of amplifying our polarization and fear? Julia shares the origins of the Loving AI project, her work on Socratic GPT tools for critical thinking, and her leadership in efforts to bring more feminine and marginalized voices into AI, robotics, cognitive science, and consciousness research, including The Synapse women’s conference.

Another major theme is time and precognition. Drawing on her neuroscience background, Julia discusses empirical work on precognition and self-transcendence, including how difficult life circumstances can sometimes push people into profound, love-filled states in which they recognize themselves as “the flame, not the candle.”

The conversation also dives into “The Telepathy Tapes” and Julia’s research with non-speaking autistic people who communicate via letterboards and keyboards. She outlines why equating speech with intelligence is scientifically and ethically untenable, and how spontaneous telepathy, “the Hill,” and rich inner lives in non-speaking autistic individuals challenge mainstream assumptions about mind, communication, and consciousness.

In the later part of the interview, Julia talks about her book “Have a Nice Disclosure,” which reframes disclosure not just as governments revealing secrets about advanced programs or possible non-human intelligences, but as an inner process of truth-telling, healing, and reconciliation. She and Rick explore how collective and personal shadow material is surfacing globally, why genuine disclosure must happen in the heart as well as in institutions, and how unconditional love can hold even the darkest aspects of our history.

Julia Mossbridge focuses ruthlessly on developing a deep understanding of love, time, technology, and how these human experiences relate to corresponding physical forces. Her most recent relevant projects include: Creating a Socratic GPT to guide intelligence analysts through the critical thinking process, leading a diverse team of technologists and designers to create a scalable, self-guided digital tool that increases overall wellbeing and is now being developed further within Native American communities, and leading an international group of AI developers and roboticists toward creating an unconditionally loving robot that reduced anger and cognitive load in humans.

Tammy Lee Anderson shares how three profound near-death experiences opened her to unconditional love, spiritual awakening, and a life of service as a psychotherapist, healer, and spiritual medium. In this deep conversation, she describes what near-death really felt like, how it dissolved the fear of death, and how love and awakening can be embodied in daily life through grief, trauma, and ordinary relationships.

We explore Tammy’s early near-death experiences in infancy, her memories of being “in between” worlds, and how these experiences invited her into a lifelong journey of surrender into love. She explains why we are not victims of our reality but co‑creators of it, and how even our deepest challenges can expand compassion, forgiveness, and embodied love.

Tammy also talks about her unusual background as an Olympic‑level kayaker, 5th degree black belt Aikido teacher, former monastic, and long‑time psychotherapist. She shares powerful stories of working with grief, homelessness, abuse, and trauma, and how her mediumship and healing work now help people reconnect with loved ones in spirit, release fear, and rediscover meaning.

If you’re curious about near‑death experiences, life after death, spiritual mediumship, or how to live awake in a dense and sometimes painful world, this conversation offers both inspiration and very grounded wisdom.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual; he is the creator, writer, host of Closer To Truth, the long-running PBS/public television series and leading digital resource on Cosmos (cosmology/physics, philosophy of science), Life (philosophy of biology), Mind (consciousness, brain/mind, philosophy of mind), and Meaning (theism/atheism/agnosticism, global philosophy of religion, critical thinking). Peter Getzels is Closer To Truth co-creator and producer/director. Kuhn is the author of the comprehensive review article on theories of consciousness – “A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a Taxonomy of Explanations and Implications” – and editor-in-chief of the expanded, continuously updated Landscape of Consciousness website (with more than 400 theories of consciousness in ten categories), Kuhn has written or edited over 30 books, including The Mystery of Existence: Why is there Anything At All? (with John Leslie); Closer To Truth: Challenging Current Belief; Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future; The Library of Investment Banking; How China’s Leaders Think (featuring President Xi Jinping); The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin (China’s best-selling book in 2005 and in December 2022); and “The Origin and Significance of Zero: An Interdisciplinary Perspective” (with Peter Gobets). Dr. Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation. He has a BA in Human Biology (Johns Hopkins), PhD in Anatomy/Brain Research (UCLA), and SM (MBA) in Management (MIT).

From my teenage years I had an unquenchable thirst to see beyond the veils that growing up had created in my mind. I tried different avenues of exploration, and soon found my spiritual home in the Zen tradition. After graduating from college, I went straight to Japan and became a Zen monk at the Bukkoku-ji monastery. For over a dozen years I practiced in the monastic context, mostly in Japan and Korea, living a life dedicated fully to this investigation, going through an awakening process, and deepening my realization and embodiment. Later I also explored approaches of other traditions and followed several secular non-traditional teachers. I have spent about 4 years total in silent meditation retreats, and have worked directly in the retreat setting and one-on-one with teachers such as my root monastic teacher, Tangen Harada Roshi, as well as with Jakusho Kwong Roshi, Shodo Harada Roshi, Wu Bong Sunim, Adyashanti and Angelo Dilullo.

Even though the years of meditation and the simplicity of monastic life had a powerful effect, most important on my path were three breakthroughs at age 23, 30 and 37, each stripping down a different layer of illusion and revealing bare truth, without any sense of separation, or any sense of personal nor universal “self.” I have also explored and continue to explore various approaches of somatic work to aid embodiment and the uprooting of habitual tendencies, as I consider myself, and all human beings, a work in progress.

Following my monastic Dharma grandfather (Daiun Harada Roshi)’s example, I vowed to spend all of my twenties and thirties only on my own practice, deepening and embodiment. Now in my forties, I make myself available as a resource to those who seek support in their own process of finding freedom from self-created suffering. Despite my love of the monastic life and the Zen tradition, I have decided to share outside of the confines of those systems. I stay true, however, to the essence and marrow of Zen as defined by Bodhidharma, the Indian monk considered the founder of what we now know as Zen:

“Transmission outside of scriptures
Not dependent upon words and phrases
Directly pointing to each person’s mind
See your nature – become a buddha”

Feel free to reach out if you feel so inclined.

May all beings find liberation!

Purnima Sinha is a spiritual director and coach whose life has been shaped by meditation, near‑death experiences, and a deep commitment to seva (selfless service). Raised in a highly spiritual Indian family steeped in the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, she began meditating in her teens and was trained in Ultra Transcendental Meditation and Surat Shabd Yoga in India. She has now practiced meditation for over 50 years.

After an intense emotional crisis around the year 2000, Purnima had a near‑death‑type experience in which she found herself in a tunnel, received a powerful life review and “downloads” about her future, and understood that her life’s purpose was far from complete. This, along with subsequent experiences—including warnings before a later collapse, shared‑death experiences with family members, and long‑term after‑death communication with her mother—reoriented her life around service, self‑love, and trust in inner guidance.

Professionally, Purnima worked for many years as a graphic designer before feeling an inner compulsion to serve in a hospital setting. Guided “voices” and a series of striking coincidences led her into over 3,500 hours of volunteer work and a formal role as a patient advocate in a major hospital, where she visited patients one‑on‑one, listened to their concerns, and supported them and their families through serious illness, cancer treatments, and end‑of‑life transitions. Repeatedly, nurses and staff invited her to sit with patients who were actively dying, and she became known informally as someone who could help people cross over peacefully.

Out of this work grew hospital meditation and wellness programs. Purnima has served as a meditation, chair‑yoga, balance and strength, and “Fit for Life” facilitator, as well as a spiritual life coach for county wellness programs and cancer support networks. She holds certificates in Lifestyle Medicine and in Meditation & Psychotherapy from Harvard Medical School. Drawing on clinical research supplied in part by her physician son, she helped establish a hospital‑based meditation initiative before the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Purnima has been a frequent presenter at the International Association for Near‑Death Studies (IANDS), including on after‑death communication panels, and has shared many of her experiences publicly only in recent years. Her article on healing the “pain body” was published in Eckhart Tolle’s newsletter. She emphasizes practical spirituality: starting and ending the day with gratitude, cultivating stillness and prayer, listening to inner guidance, and practicing self‑love as the foundation for serving others.

Her core messages include: no one ever dies alone; we are always guided and supported, even when we cannot see it; every experience, including painful ones, can serve the evolution of consciousness; and “Self‑Care = Self‑Love.”

The Open Secret message is totally radical and uncompromising. It is a rare and singular expression of absolute non-dualism. It bypasses the mind and speaks directly to the very core of a wisdom that is imminent in all of us. When there is a readiness to hear, all seeking and need for personal endeavor falls away, leaving simply the wonder of what is. There is no me or you, no seeker, no enlightenment, no disciple and no guru. There is no better or worse, no path, and nothing that has to be achieved. All appearance is source. All that apparently manifests - the world, the life story, the hypnotic dream of separation, the search for home - is the one appearing as two, the nothing appearing as everything, the absolute appearing as the particular. There is no separate intelligence weaving a destiny, and no choice functioning at any level. Nothing is happening, but this, as it is, invites the apparent seeker to rediscover that which already is...the abiding, uncaused, unchanging, impersonal silence from which unconditional love overflows and celebrates. It is the wonderful mystery. Tony Parsons has been sharing this "open secret" with people for over 20 years. His talks and workshops are highly regarded in England and Western Europe. Tony's books: As It Is: The Open Secret of Spiritual Awakening The Open Secret Nothing Being Everything Tony's website Summary and Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded 2/2/2012 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Opening interview with guest Tony Parsons 00:02:30 - Searching for a message 00:04:56 - Separation filter and dissatisfaction 00:07:46 - Liberation from the illusion of separateness 00:10:48 - Spiritual practices and liberation 00:13:11 - Theory of quantum physics and free will 00:15:27 - The seeker lives in an illusion 00:17:52 - Deliverance regardless of story 00:20:18 - Personal Enlightenment and Personal Liberation 00:22:16 - Hidden answers and searches 00:24:37 - Difference in teaching and communication 00:26:50 - Lack of intention and motivation 00:29:01 - Immersion in artificial reality 00:31:14 - Clarity and separation in perception 00:33:24 - Life as an answer to the search for fulfillment 00:35:32 - Searching for reason, understanding and liberation 00:37:51 - Awakening and enlightenment 00:40:00 - Search 00:42:11 - "Liberation and infinite energy" 00:44:06 - Existence of a Universal Energy 00:46:04 - Appearance of suffering 00:48:26 - Back to the individual perspective 00:50:37 - Nothing is infinite energy 00:52:42 - Meaning of divine 00:54:57 - Contributions by Tony Parsons and the important difference between description and prescription 00:57:01 - Apparent reincarnation and karma 00:59:38 - The illusion of time and reality 01:01:36 - Illusory elephant and tree 01:03:17 - The impact of implementation on family life 01:05:41 - Searching for enlightenment 01:07:48 - Upcoming Interviews and Notifications

John Hagelin, Ph.D., is a world-renowned quantum physicist, educator, author, and leading proponent of peace. Dr. Hagelin has conducted pioneering research at CERN (the European Center for Particle Physics) and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He is responsible for the development of a highly successful grand unified field theory based on the superstring—a theory that was featured in a cover story of Discover magazine. In addition, Dr. Hagelin has spent much of the past quarter century leading a scientific investigation into the foundations of human consciousness. He is one of the world’s pre-eminent researchers on the effects of meditation on brain development, and the use of collective meditation to defuse societal stress and to reduce crime and social violence. In recognition of his outstanding achievements, Dr. Hagelin was named winner of the prestigious Kilby Award, which recognizes scientists who have made “major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology.” The award recognized Dr. Hagelin as “a scientist in the tradition of Einstein, Jeans, Bohr and Eddington.” Dr. Hagelin was featured in the hit movies What the Bleep Do We Know!? and The Secret for his cutting-edge research in physics, higher states of consciousness; and the peace-promoting effects of large meditation groups. Dr. Hagelin has appeared many times on ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN’s Larry King Live! and Inside Politics, CNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, and others. He has also been regularly featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other major metropolitan newspapers. Dr. Hagelin received his A.B. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1975 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1981. He is currently director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Professor of physics at Maharishi University of Management, President of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, President of the David Lynch Foundation, and Director of the Maharishi Foundation USA, which overseas the teaching of Transcendental Meditation in the United States. Book: Manual for a Perfect Government: How to Harness the Laws of Nature to Bring Maximum Success to Governmental Administration Interview recorded 1/12/2014

From an early age Rupert Spira was deeply interested in the nature of reality. For twenty years he studied the teachings of P.D.Ouspensky, J.Krishnamurti, Rumi, Shankaracharya, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Robert Adams, until he met his teacher, Francis Lucille, in 1996. Francis introduced Rupert to the teachings of Jean Klein and Atmanada Krishnamenon and, more importantly, directly indicated to him the true nature of experience. Rupert’s YouTube Channel. Interviews can be listened to here and watched here. Rupert lives in UK and holds regular meetings and retreats in Europe and USA. Books: The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience Presence, Volume I: The Art of Peace and Happiness Presence, Volume II: The Intimacy of All Experience The Ashes of Love: Sayings on the Essence of Non-Duality The Light of Pure Knowing: Thirty Meditations on the Essence of Non-Duality Transparent Body, Luminous World: The Tantric Yoga of Sensation and Perception (Book and six MP3 CD Box Set - 30 Hours of Audio) The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter Being Aware of Being Aware (The Essence of Meditation Series) For all further information see http://www.rupertspira.com. Interview recorded 11/6/2011. Summary and Transcript of this interview. 2nd BatGap interview with Rupert YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Rupert Spira and his book 00:04:14 - The Path of Advaita-Vedanta 00:08:06 - Recognizing "Home" 00:11:59 - Explorations of Feeling in the Body 00:15:50 - The Mechanics of the Experience 00:20:03 - The Knowingness of Experience 00:23:57 - The Objectivity of Reality 00:27:44 - The Common Perception in a Dream 00:31:26 - The Relationship Between Intelligence and the Structure of the World 00:34:53 - The Nature of Awareness 00:38:37 - The Presence of the Imaginary Separate Self 00:42:38 - Individuality and the Illusion of a Separate Self 00:46:34 - Models of Enlightenment 00:50:22 - Enlightenment and the Perpetuation of the Separate Self 00:53:51 - The Point of View of Awareness vs the Separate Self 00:57:43 - The Illusion of Ignorance and the Reality of Awareness 01:01:23 - The Illusion of Duality 01:04:34 - The Conundrum of the Apparent World 01:08:17 - The Path of Exclusion 01:12:11 - The Path of Understanding and Love 01:15:22 - The Experience of Perception as Awareness 01:18:12 - The Nature of Direct Experience 01:21:08 - The Illusion of Separate Objects 01:24:54 - The Art of Teaching and the Nature of Experience 01:29:04 - Tailoring Love and Understanding to the Question 01:32:57 - The Limitation of Language and Teaching 01:36:46 - The After-Effects of Enlightenment 01:40:40 - The Art of Teaching 01:44:11 - The Continuing Process of Enlightenment 01:48:03 - The Permeation of Love and Transparency