Sam speaks with author and spiritual teacher Elias Amidon. They discuss Elias’s atheistic upbringing; his activism; his “extremely formative experience” on LSD; nonduality in Sufism; mystical vs. psychological levels of spiritual training; strategies for dissolving bodily tension; our interdependence with ecological systems; the relationship between mental freedom and free will; Sufism’s isolation across the Muslim world; Elias’s three-part “subtle opening” practice, a version of which he guides; and other topics.

Elias Amidon is the spiritual director (Pir) of the Sufi Way, a contemporary and non-sectarian inner school in the lineage of the Indian mystic Inayat Khan. His books include The Open Path: Recognizing Nondual Awareness; Free Medicine: Meditations on Nondual Awareness; and Love’s Drum: Sufi Views, Practices, and Stories. Elias worked for many years in the fields of peace and environmental activism, and co-founded several schools, including the Institute for Deep Ecology, the Boulder Institute for Nature and the Human Spirit, and the graduate program in Environmental Leadership at Naropa University. He holds frequent retreats, both online and in-person, on awakening and living a beautiful life. To learn more, visit sufiway.org.