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In this episode of Letters to the Sky, Stephan and Adam speak with Dave Biggs, a UK-based nondual teacher whose path grew out of a highly controlled religious upbringing, childhood trauma, and years of anxiety, panic disorder, addiction, and a bipolar diagnosis. Drawing on his experience supporting others in distress through the NHS and Samaritans, Dave explores why awakening can become a subtle escape when intense suffering makes the idea of “no self” feel like a final hope—and how that denial eventually crashes.
Together, they unpack the overlooked work of post-awakening integration: the way emotions can become more raw and intense when resistance falls away, why kindness and gentleness still matter, and how labeling and story-making can trap sensations instead of letting them move through. Dave describes an “absolute” ground of unconditioned awareness as a stabilizing landing pad—like a starter before the main course—that makes it possible to face trauma without bypassing the human experience. The conversation closes with Dave sharing brief details of his childhood split between Jehovah’s Witness fear and his father’s atheism, his long search to disprove a malicious God, and the eventual recognition of an unconditionally loving presence, along with ways to connect with him at dualitydetox.com.
00:00 Welcome
01:00 How They Met Dave: Voice Memos, Nonduality Groups & Shared Language
02:07 Dave’s Background: Trauma, Mental Health, and Teaching Without Bypassing
05:53 The Trap of ‘No One Here’: Spiritual Bypassing, Denial, and the Crash
11:54 Real Self-Realization: Ordinary, Subtle, and Noticed by the Absence of Suffering
13:46 Integration Mechanics: Momentum After Awakening & the ‘Last 5%’ of Work
16:41 Emotions After Awakening: Anger, Grief, Tears, and Feeling It Fully
19:24 Letting Emotions Move: Disney Tears, Accessibility, and Dropping the Labels
22:58 The ‘Child Catcher’ Metaphor: Stop Netting Feelings and Naming Them
27:02 Mind’s Story-Making vs Witnessing: Grasping, Aversion, and Waves Passing Through
30:18 Groundlessness & Ultimate Truth: Returning to What We Are
32:00 The “Landing Pad”: Unconditioned Awareness as the Base
34:08 Starter vs Main Course: Letting Experience Move Through You
37:02 Macbeth, Despair, and Finding the Ground Beneath the “Sound and Fury”
40:32 Post-Awakening Reality Check: Emotions Don’t Disappear
41:49 Why the Ground Makes Healing Possible (and the Hand Analogy Explained)
44:14 Healing Is Reachable: Safety, Integration, and Trauma Unraveling
46:23 When Pain Becomes Identity: The MS Patient Story
49:30 Dave’s Lived-Experience Work & Dropping the Trauma “Performance”
54:40 Dave’s Childhood & Awakening Turning Point (High-Level Story)
59:27 Wrap-Up: Keep Doing the Work + Where to Find Dave
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1 hr and 3 mins