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The Space Between – Heaven on Earth is a companion podcast to Awakening – Heaven on Earth.
Through intimate, heart-centered conversations, this series explores the lived experience of awakening — the questions, integrations, paradoxes, and sacred pauses where transformation truly occurs.
This is the space between knowing and becoming…
where Heaven meets Earth through honest dialogue.
Welcome to the space between heaven on earth. This is a companion podcast to awakening heaven on earth created as a space for reflection, conversation, and lived experience. Here, we enter the pause between knowing and becoming, between insight and embodiment, between heaven and earth. These conversations are not about answers or conclusions. They are about presence, about listening, about reasoning together, about meeting one another honestly in the unfolding journey of awakening.
Jeffrey Aylor:I'm your host, Jeffrey Aylor. Again, welcome and thank you for entering The Space Between with us. Welcome to this episode of the space between heaven and earth. I'm Jeff Ehler, your host, and I'm joined today by my son Joel and my dear friends Joe Dermody and Sherry Keys for a reflective conversation on the spirit of unity, the subtle, the unseen presence that really connects self, other earth and source. Together we're going to explore what it means to experience unity not merely as an idea, but as a living spirit expressed through awareness, compassion, creativity, and shared humanity.
Jeffrey Aylor:We're going to draw from our personal experiences rather than doctrine or dogma. This conversation is designed to invite you, the listener, to notice the quiet presence that animates and connects and softens what we perceive to be separation. This episode offers us an invitation to breathe deeply, just take it in slowly, and recognize that unity is already alive within and around us. So in our most recent episodes here, we've explored unity in a lot of different forms. We have talked about unity with God, unity with the self, unity with others, with the earth, and unity is expressed through the body.
Jeffrey Aylor:Now today we're going to turn to something that's even more subtle, probably more difficult for people to grasp, and that is the spirit of unity. We'll talk a lot more about that, and why why would it be something more subtle, something more difficult? We're not going to talk about this as a belief system. We're not talking about this as a concept. We just want to touch on the fact that this is the animating presence, the animating presence that runs through everything, absolutely everything.
Jeffrey Aylor:So all the different traditions, the sacred traditions that we talk about from time to time, have a word that they use to express this idea of spirit. It could be breath, it could be life, it can be energy, it could be awareness, consciousness, something that moves through and connects all things. It's the glue. I kind of like to think of it as the glue of unity. How do we stay unified?
Jeffrey Aylor:We do it through this glue, the spirit. So with that, I want to invite Joe, Joel, Sherry, welcome. Glad to have you guys with us again this week, and I'm going to ask each one of you to share when you hear the phrase the spirit of unity. What arises inside you? Is it a feeling?
Jeffrey Aylor:Is it a memory? Is it a way of seeing?
Joel Aylor:For me, when I hear the spirit of unity, I don't think of something that's added to to life. I think of it as something that's already already moving through it. Like breath. It's invisible, but it's undeniable. It's there.
Joel Aylor:It feels less like a like a concept and more like something that becomes noticeable when I stop resisting connection with with others. It's this feels like the quiet intelligence that's behind relationships.
Joe Dermody:I it makes me think of a of a almost like a family reunion. I get together. There's music playing. It's a party. It's a it's a carnival.
Joe Dermody:It's a everybody is is enjoying themselves. We are we are together. We are it's it's it's a vibe.
Joel Aylor:Right? We're we're one.
Jeffrey Aylor:I like that that word vibe. There was a I was at the Oktoberfest in Munich, and we were actually at one of my absolute favorite beer gardens in the entire world. It's one of my favorite places in the world, the August Tinnerkeller in Munich, and we're sitting there with a couple, another couple who joined us that morning and having really great conversation. To your point, we were having this really great conversation. It was just really moving.
Jeffrey Aylor:You could feel the energy among all of us in this discussion, and the one lady stopped and she looked at me in the eye and she said, I love your vibe. And I'm like, okay, well, what does what's that really mean? What what's she telling me? And I think that's the essence of what we're really talking about is we give off this unseen energy or vibe, and it and and is it a unifying energy, or is it a separating energy? Is it divisive, or is it uniting?
Jeffrey Aylor:Right? Is it pleasant? Is it unpleasant kind of a feeling.
Joel Aylor:So That's kind of the beauty of Oktoberfest is that that they celebrate, that feeling of togetherness and friendship and warm, cozy feelings that you that the English language isn't a happy word for. It's just a it's just a feeling and a knowing that you've that you get into that energy when you're there with everybody.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yeah. And and it's contagious in many ways. Right? And and so I love I love that the concept of a vibe. It it it really is a feeling, an energy vibe, meaning vibration.
Jeffrey Aylor:Right? Absolutely. And frequency. Jerry?
Sherri Keys:I guess when I think of it, you know, I I kind of think of a vision, right, of just feeling like you're in this place, and what I can just closely think about is a church setting you're just there and you just get this feeling. You get this everybody's like enjoying something together. Like there is this without any prior knowledge of, you know, anyone's past or, you know, cultures or anything. We're all just like together in this moment being moved in in very similar ways without we have blinders on to everything else that exists in the world except for what is uniting us at that moment. It it feels like love.
Sherri Keys:Like, it's a feeling for me. Right?
Jeffrey Aylor:That's beautiful. You know, it a lot of times in those church services you're talking about, you've heard people say, Oh, the Spirit is strong, or Oh, the Holy Spirit is here. Same expression, different words.
Joel Aylor:Yeah.
Jeffrey Aylor:The Holy Spirit's present with us, the and you're in the now, right? You're totally in that moment, which is heaven. Heaven is in this present moment. Just like right now, this conversation is heaven. And being in it and in this moment and not letting anything in front of us, ahead of us, behind us, focus is on the now, and you can feel the spirit moving.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yeah. Christianity calls that the holy spirit. Mhmm. And that's such a difficult concept to really pin down.
Joel Aylor:We think of this as something almost outside of us that has to kinda like all of a sudden just come into the into the room and and just flow around us.
Jeffrey Aylor:Well, does, doesn't it? Bubbling up
Joel Aylor:from the inside.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yeah. It well, it comes from inside and expresses out from me and you. But then I feel you. So it does come from out. Sure, right?
Jeffrey Aylor:You get that inside out experience. It's not just an internal thing. It is an external thing. And I think that's that is the so to Sherry, your point about church or ecclesia, which is the Greek word that that's translated from means assembly and assembly. When you're together with other people and you're sharing that spirit, there there's it it just vibrates.
Jeffrey Aylor:It truly, truly vibrates. You can feel it.
Sherri Keys:Yeah. I was gonna say it's it's strong. I mean, it when it hits you to your point, you're in that moment, and it's just very strong. And you really do feel like, you know, I mean, there's we're we're all unified in this one feeling. You feel like we're all just we're in this moment, right, together.
Sherri Keys:Yeah. It's it's it's when I think of it, I that's what I kind of grasp to is that feeling I've had at that moment in my life.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yeah. And then you wonder, can we translate that same experience and feeling outside of a religious description or connotation? Can you have that same experience without it being a religious ceremony or a religious thing? Could it be at work? Can it be at home in your family?
Jeffrey Aylor:Can it be in what in what different places?
Joel Aylor:I felt that same energy at a really good rock show or any kind of music. Mean, anytime music is involved, you can really feel the unity come together. Everybody feels that same energy coming out of the music, and you sit in that moment. That's the power of music is it brings you into the now. You're not waiting for the ending.
Joel Aylor:You're on the journey of that song. You're not sitting there waiting for the climax or for the the last note. You're literally in the moment the entire way through, and when you are together with other people in that same moment, the power of it can be can be impressive.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yeah. That's what I'm that's why I'm glad as part of this overall experience we're creating through this awakening heaven on earth platform, that music is a big part of it. Yeah. Because it does. It absolutely puts you in the moment, and and it's funny because I'm less concerned personally about how the music is created.
Jeffrey Aylor:What what's important to me about the music is that it exists, and the message and the feeling that it generates, that's what's important to me more than anything else. Alright, so as we move now further into this and into the actual reflection questions, I want to make sure we clarify and set the intention here that this isn't for us. We're not coming to a conclusion or explaining what the spirit of unity is. We're expressing in our own words and thoughts and experience, and then opening this up to you as you listen to come to your conclusions and ideas around what the spirit of unity is to you, it is to notice where this unifying spirit already feels alive within our life and our experience in breath, in awareness, in relationships. You know, unity often shows itself to us with less certainty and more as a presence, right?
Jeffrey Aylor:It's it's one of those things that's really hard to prove Because to me, spirit can't be seen. But you can feel it. You see evidence of it, right? Which is that presence that is made manifest through different ways. So let's start with our first reflection question where we're going to kind of focus on spirit as breath.
Jeffrey Aylor:Again, we talked about earlier, you know, most sacred traditions relate spirit to breath, which is why we have meditation, why we have breathing practices, we have all these different things. So what happens when I simply notice my breath shared air moving in and out and consider that every living being, every living thing participates in that exchange?
Joel Aylor:Yeah. There's a lot to unpack in just that little bit there, but the the beauty of the breath is it's extremely grounding when you pay attention to it. That's kind of the gist of of meditation. And especially when you're first learning about meditation, they tell you to to focus on the breath. That really brings you into the moment, into the now, and you and you start to hear it inside your own body.
Joel Aylor:You can actually hear it with your own ears moving within you. You can feel it going in. You can feel it coming out. You can it really grounds you into the body and into that moment, and I think that's powerful. But when I noticed my breath, I'm reminded, you know, that, like you said, it's shared.
Joel Aylor:It's not mine. It's shared air, and it's exhaled by trees, other people. It's all we're all in the in the in the midst of it, and it's hard to maintain the illusion of isolation when you look at it that way. When you're literally breathing in what the earth and others have breathed out, you cannot how can you say that you are not all connected? Thich Nhat Hanh is a Tibetan monk that basically said breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness.
Joel Aylor:And if you sit with that, that's that's pretty powerful. Basically, you can basically, we're completely aware of of how connected we are just by by focusing on the breath and thinking about your breath.
Joe Dermody:And then there's even more when you stop to think about how did the air come into being in the first place. You know? It had to be the the conditions had to be exactly right to even have the correct mixture to support our life to even be here on Earth. So the creator had to put it here and to create the whole cycle that you just explained to between us and the plants, and, it it brings a whole new dimension even to that. Honestly, I don't I don't think about it a whole lot.
Joe Dermody:Just like most people, when we breathe in and breathe out, it's a it's a a personal process with our own bodies, and I pretty sure most people don't think about the whole everything that's going on and the shared experience of breathing. It's a most people don't even think about what goes on when we take a breath internally with our lungs and how we get the oxygen to the muscles and and then, you know, individually inside, and then how do we share that air with everybody else. And there's so much, so much that happens when we just take a breath. You're right. And and I I don't I haven't thought about it in that aspect at all, to tell you the truth, until just now when we were sitting here talking about it.
Joe Dermody:But it's immense just the act of a breath from one person, and then we're doing it with billions of people. When sharing it with so many other creatures on this planet, not just humans, everything is breathing. The whole world, the whole planet is breathing. It's amazing. It's amazing.
Sherri Keys:So I so it's very abstract. Right? So so I would agree with Joe, like, as you're sitting back thinking about it, you're not thinking about it. Right? You're not thinking that every last one of us, you know, are sharing this very special thing that allows the calythrope to continue to live.
Sherri Keys:People don't usually, we never focus on that. We never focused on the, like, the amount of the breath to me is, as we're breathing, it's like it's an energy force. So everything that, you know, so if we, if we're really focusing on, like, what goes in and what goes out, we're releasing a certain tone of energy to the universe and people around us. And I feel like if there was a way to touch people in a way, you know, to show not only that we share in this very critical common theme that with everybody, every living creature, that would be a good foundation of how we all begin to understand how we are more alike than we are different. And it definitely is an awareness.
Sherri Keys:If we were very aware of how we're breathing and how that is a shared thought, then we would also understand how moving the things that we take in and take out really impacts the people around us and how we reflect and how we see each other and how we share and how we unify. Yeah, that's pretty deep concept. Now I've got to start paying more attention to that because I have not really dug that deep.
Jeffrey Aylor:Know what all of you are saying is we tend to do this unconsciously, and what we're trying to do here is make this more conscious, be more aware, and what really strikes me about this particular description of spirit as breath is that, you know, in the Christian traditions, and even in all Judeo Christian teachings, they teach that God breathed into man the breath of life. Whose breath is it? Breath is God. It's the presence of God in you. If you wanna connect to God, connect to your breath.
Jeffrey Aylor:That it it it just uses syllogism, right, to come to that conclusion. If God is my breath and I wanna connect to God, I have to connect to my breath because it's the most obvious part of me that lets me do that. So what we've been saying is that in most cases, most people, all of us, are unconscious of God within us. Because we're not conscious of our breath.
Joel Aylor:To your point, so that's where they get the the term Yahweh. It was the sound of breathing in and breathing out.
Jeffrey Aylor:You're right. And there's another there's another word. It's in Hebrew. It's Rucha. Mhmm.
Jeffrey Aylor:Which is spirit. And just the very the name is how you breathe. Rucha. Right? It's interesting because as as.
Jeffrey Aylor:You look at many traditions that you they do the same thing, clearing breath. It's a resonant breath. You know, our Reiki teacher was talking about exhale in a way that you hear it, That it's clearing and you can That's the very presence of God. And you hear it now, not just feel it, you hear it when you make that noise. You just gave something that is typically not visible, an ability to be sensed.
Jeffrey Aylor:Interesting. This conversation has already been absolutely worth the time and energy. So again here here we have something that's very unconscious in most of our experiences. I love the point, Joel, you make about how meditation really is designed for us to reconnect with God in that way of connecting to our breath. That's why most all meditation practices begin and end with breathing specific exercises, and I find that to be one of the most powerful practices in our living heaven on earth series.
Jeffrey Aylor:This last series, and we're getting now into some of the actual practices, and one of them is centering breath. Centering breath. How do I center myself? Well, I do it by connecting to my breath. Now where is your breath in your body?
Jeffrey Aylor:Where where where is it being processed in your body physically? In your lungs, which are in, you know, the core of your being, and it helps center you when you do that. Oh, beautiful. Love this so much. Let's go into our next one.
Jeffrey Aylor:So this is where we start thinking of the spirit of unity as a felt a felt connection. Have there been moments when you feel deeply connected to others, to nature, or to something that's bigger than yourself without needing to have it be explained to you? You just feel it.
Joel Aylor:Yeah. It can happen a couple different ways. I mean, I can I can feel it usually when I'm in in silence, in meditation? I can feel a deep a deep spirit of connection, Deep conversation like this one. I can feel feel the unity of of the spirit between us.
Joel Aylor:Being in nature, for sure, I mean, obviously, that's very grounding. It reconnects you and get get your energy levels back in sync. But but like I mentioned before, when it comes to, like, being with people to listen to music, to me, that just there's so much power behind music. And if you allow it to just fully if you to if you allow yourself to fully absorb it, you can be very, very powerful. And I can I can feel most connected with a lot of people in in those times?
Joel Aylor:I can feel the energy of an of an immense room when all these people are enjoying the same thing. We start to resonate at the same frequencies and just absorb the whole experience. So it's not always, you know, a dramatic thing. Sometimes it's subtle, but and it's definitely an experience within yourself if you allow
Sherri Keys:it
Joel Aylor:to to to come in. So
Joe Dermody:I agree that I feel it also when I meditate. And at concerts, they've also yeah. They hit you hard when you when you're really at those, you know, those big group events like that all sharing the same experience, especially when the music hits and everybody's jumping around. It's yeah. Absolutely.
Joe Dermody:I felt it during our Reiki training because you're it's kind of like a group meditation. And, yeah, it feels felt fantastic because you're all experiencing the same thing. On the other side of it, I I have also felt it at at a funeral. You know, we're there with family, with friends. You're experiencing the same thing.
Joe Dermody:It's not always a pleasant thing, but you're still there together, and you're experiencing the same thing. It's not always a it's not great, but you're there for each other. And when when again, it's not a good vibe, but vibe is still there. I've also had times too, you know, you're with good friends. You're out doing things.
Joe Dermody:We've gone camping. You're out in the woods. We're having a fantastic time there as well. You're around a camp fire, and you're reminiscing about things, especially if you haven't seen these friends for a while. And and just once you're in that that zone, you're in that again, I I know I'm gonna use it a lot today probably because of what we're talking about, but that vibe, you again, you start resonating at that that same vibration, and it's amazing what happens.
Joe Dermody:We've sat around campfires. We do this almost every time this core group of friends together, and we start reminiscing. And, yeah, it's just a fantastic feeling because you know that you're connected at that point, and everybody is remembering the same thing. You can almost see it in each other's face as you start talking about things, and that that light bulb comes on as everybody connects to that same moment that we shared, reminding me I need to call these people and get together again. But yeah.
Joe Dermody:Yeah. There's there's definitely times when they hit.
Sherri Keys:I think that we experience it all through everything we do in life is just not something that we are very conscious of. Right? Until now, until this discussion, you don't realize that you're having these connections, these experiences, these acts of unity, these things that we're sharing, and they're happening for me. Feel like they happen through different aspects every day of my life, even from work to personal experiences. Last night, I had an aunt that turned 88.
Sherri Keys:And so we got together to celebrate that with her, with family members, honestly cousins that I haven't seen in years. So we all were laughing because we're much more mature now. But we were laughing about just things, remembering different moments and times and and, you know, that, you know, we all shared and and and really just it was a beautiful thing. So I think it happens throughout. Every time we embark in different things or different activities, we're just as beings not really conscious of it, aware of it.
Sherri Keys:So that's that's my perspective.
Jeffrey Aylor:I'm gonna go I'm gonna go a little different direction in that. Sometimes I feel people, and they're not near me. We're not in a room together. We're not in a physical location together, but I feel them. And typically when that happens and they come into my mind, they come into my thoughts, it's an indication I need to contact them, or they're getting ready to contact me, and that happens.
Jeffrey Aylor:You know, I'll think of somebody sometimes, and next thing I know I get a text or you get a phone call, and so I was just thinking about you. Well, don't know. How did that happen? You know, hey, well that's how it happens, is through that shared connection, and I had that same I believe that same thing exists or is available to us even with our loved ones who've passed, people who have left this physical plane but are still very much alive, Their spirit is we are, and I think we have the ability to feel them and feel the connection with them that we've always had. In most cases, though, when we feel certain things, again, I believe what we're feeling, we're unconscious to.
Jeffrey Aylor:We we we're not aware of it. We experience it, but can't explain it. And a lot of times I think that is that connection with a living presence, a living spirit that may not physically be within my space. So I see see this and feel this beyond, and I think that's what part of our spiritual senses are claircognizance, spiritual knowing, and clairsentience, which is spiritual feeling. And when you feel, can feel somebody else, you can feel their presence, and they they they they aren't even there physically.
Jeffrey Aylor:That is a strong, a deep connection. You know, when I was think about this concept. Even though we appear to be separate even if we're in the same room with each other, we appear to be separate to each other. When in reality, we're connected by the very air between us. That just because we can't see the air connecting us, it doesn't mean it's not there.
Jeffrey Aylor:It's there, and we are connected through that air. We breathe that same air.
Joel Aylor:So I think spirit is what kind of unifies it, because everything else is basically sense. It's our five senses, and that and those five senses are meant to to give us a feeling of separation and individualism. I am my body, you are yours, but the spirit is where it all connects. Those those elements.
Jeffrey Aylor:That's why I like to call it the glue. It's the glue.
Joel Aylor:Correct.
Jeffrey Aylor:Right? Yeah. Of unity. It's the whole thing together. It's like the field.
Jeffrey Aylor:Right. Right. A lot of people will describe it as an ocean. Right? The ocean and and we're waves in the ocean, but the waves are not separate from the ocean.
Jeffrey Aylor:They're a part of the ocean. They're an individual expression of ocean, and they're temporary. But when the wave goes away, visibly, it's not gone. It's just reabsorbed back into the ocean. Mhmm.
Joe Dermody:Right? The spirit's what makes the I the we.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yes. So and you were making a comment about earlier before we actually came on to do this recording. We were talking about the I am statements we make, and that is where you as an individual processing your experience or talking as an individual being, but if we make I am statements collectively are we are. Right. So we have to be careful then when we say, well, we are this or we are that, because that manifests itself in many ways, just like I am statements manifest themselves.
Jeffrey Aylor:Who who do you think you really are? And are you really that? So pretty, pretty awesome. So let's. Let's touch on creativity and flow.
Jeffrey Aylor:I love questions about this. So when have you experienced a sense of flow or inspiration or creativity that felt much, much larger than you as an individual or your individual effort?
Joel Aylor:For me, it always comes with the strangest times. Comes in the middle of the night. It's between two and four in the morning a lot of times, and it keeps me awake while I sit and think about everything that comes flowing in. Obviously, that happens for a reason. I think that's when we're the most receptive because our our senses have shut off.
Joel Aylor:We're completely still and resting. And that's when when the spirit can come in and actually kinda show you some things or kinda communicate with you. And a lot of it, know, it's it ties to things I'm working on at work, tied to relationships, and you kinda go over things that, you know, show you a different perspective of how you can handle this or what you can do with this scenario. And sometimes it becomes creative. Some but but it really feels like I'm creating something new.
Joel Aylor:It's more like I'm discovering something that's already there if I would just get out of the way. So I'm already participating in something that's already moving. And if I can just basically just follow that flow, the there's not as much effort. You you start to see things much simpler. One of my favorite quotes from Alan Watts is, I did not come into this world, but I came out of it.
Joel Aylor:And that's kinda how that feels. It just kinda comes out of me. It doesn't it's not necessarily something I'm creating. It just it just it it it shows up, and I think that's kind of a cool cool way of looking at it. Or even another quote I had was genius is 1% talent and 99% surrender.
Joel Aylor:Sometimes the most beautiful things we can experience are are the mysterious where it comes from. It just comes out of nowhere, and you and you just kinda you have to get out of your own way. I think that's where being having this stuff happen a lot of times in the middle of the night, I'm already out of my own way, and it just comes to me. And then even first thing after I wake up and you go and you take a shower, you're still kinda in a in between sleep and and and your normal day.
Jeffrey Aylor:And you're grounded in the shower.
Joel Aylor:Yeah. You're grounded in the shower, and you get some great insights that come out of nowhere while you're taking a shower sometimes if you just sit and listen to your thoughts. Don't react to them. Don't label them or whatever, but just listen. Just watch the flow.
Joel Aylor:And I've had some great great ideas come through at
Jeffrey Aylor:that time too. It's a great place to meditate.
Joe Dermody:Mhmm.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yeah.
Joe Dermody:That's the top top one I have written down is those shower moments.
Jeffrey Aylor:Yeah.
Joe Dermody:And and it's because, again, yeah, you're grounded, and your body is typically relaxed. You know, you you have the hot water hitting and, yeah, you'd let let your body relax. You get the the you let your your physical self relax enough that your your mental and spirit gets to come through a little bit more. Right? So, yeah, shower moments was my number one place to get some inspiration and creativity to be able to flow.
Joe Dermody:Meditation sometimes will will give me inspiration. Brainstorming during meetings sometimes, you can get ideas that just nobody had had originally in their heads. And just by sitting there and everybody thinking about stuff that just kind of where did that thought come from? But, man, that was a good one. That's fantastic.
Joe Dermody:And those are my my top three where we really kinda struck gold.
Sherri Keys:Well, let's say I've got a top one, and that's sleep. That seems to be something I love doing. But so sleep seems to be probably when, you know, as I'm sleeping is where I, you know, whatever I'm thinking about or maybe something I've prayed about or whatever. And it's almost like God has given me a roadmap in the most quiet point. Right?
Sherri Keys:I'm getting to a point where I've at least got the tools to do this in a more self awareness way through the training we just had. But in the past, it's always been, you know, the creativity comes while you're trying to sleep. So you're, you're, to Joel's point, you're like, you're waking up and you're like, okay, you know, I got this. And it's weird because whatever that thing is that you're thinking about, it just seems like it flows perfectly in your thoughts, you know, at that moment in time. So for me, you know, definitely my moment of awareness or whatever happens during that time.
Jeffrey Aylor:Well, I can honestly say we would not be sitting here doing this podcast if it weren't for the fact that I had received a significant inspiration to do this work, and to see it, and to create it, and to provide it, and to and it definitely didn't come from me. None of this comes from me. It's not about me. It's interesting because in the wonderful podcast, The Telepathy Tapes, they touch on this very topic of how people get inspired. How how do people that are highly creative artists, whether they're musicians or art, or whether they're doing great scientific work, or whether they're doing anything that is perceived to be highly intellectual creative work, most every person that is known for some special thing will tell you it didn't come from them.
Jeffrey Aylor:It came to them. It came to them in a a dream, came to them in a just a moment of a flash. People will tell you, I received the entire thing in a download, which is exactly how the awakening heaven on earth platform has come together. It all came to me in a mass of downloads, nine books, 10 books, the podcast, the structure of the podcast, the nonprofit organization that's built to be in support of all this, where all of it came to me in a download. Now I believe just as they talked about in the telepathy tapes that you can receive, you may be chosen by the universe to receive that.
Jeffrey Aylor:It's your free will to choose whether you take an action on it, whether you receive it and act on it. And if you choose not to act on it, the universe will find someone else that's prepared and ready, and we'll go and it will download to them. But as long as you are receiving, and as long as you're and the thing about this work is it is just flowing. It's just natural at this point because I'm I'm doing it in a flow. It doesn't feel like work.
Jeffrey Aylor:It's not work. In fact, if I were to fight it, it would be work. Because when we talk about flow, you have to be in the flow, not going against the flow, and you it'd be like swimming upstream or trying to ride a bicycle into the wind. If you've ever ridden a bicycle, you know the difference in when you're riding with the wind and when you're riding against the wind. You feel it.
Jeffrey Aylor:You can feel the resistance to it, and it really is the best way for me to describe how this entire concept of awakening heaven on earth has come together, and why we're sitting here this morning having this conversation. It and it is exhilarating. It's exhilarating. Much larger than me, much larger than you, much larger than than all of us, but beautiful. And I'm so excited that we're even sitting here talking about it.
Jeffrey Aylor:In fact, I'm gonna tear up thinking about it. So in moments of stillness, can you sense an awareness that feels shared rather than isolated?
Joel Aylor:So in stillness, Awareness doesn't feel owned. My thoughts feel personal, and they are. They're usually tied to my my current life, but awareness feels shared. When I when I sit in awareness, it it doesn't feel like it's just me. It's like a background feel which we all just, you know, we just kind of appear in.
Joel Aylor:We're in in this field together, and we interact, and and the energy moves between you and I. And when I'm aware of that that awareness, I realize that it's not it's not individual. But that that stillness and that silence of awareness just makes me think of be still and know, which is a super, super powerful psalm from from Jewish scripture that has really, really stuck in my head a lot of times. So when I when I'm fighting that's that silence and that stillness, I just keep telling myself over and over, almost as a mantra in a way, just be still and know. It's all you have to do.
Joel Aylor:Easier said than done. It's simple, but it's not always easy. But it's extremely powerful when you can actually conquer that.
Joe Dermody:For me, no. No. I'll be honest. Not not not right now. Not yet.
Joe Dermody:Is it something I try to feel? Yes. It I try. Do I feel it? Do I feel it now?
Joe Dermody:No.
Joel Aylor:That's the
Joe Dermody:That's right. Don't try. Don't try. Correct. Don't try.
Joe Dermody:Do. So correct. Am I trying? No. Am I going to get there?
Joe Dermody:I will get there. But, no, I'm not I I don't at this point. Right? And, no, it's not like I'm sitting there consciously trying to feel it out. Right?
Joe Dermody:I am meditating, and I so my words are are not correct in this in here. But, again, I'm I'm fairly new to all of this. Right? I I recently started meditating. I haven't been doing this for very long.
Joe Dermody:A couple couple months, maybe two. Right? It's not a long, long process for me. It's amazing what I have been feeling since I've started, though, and I'm excited in this journey. And stuff that I'm feeling is amazing, And I love doing this now.
Joe Dermody:It's no longer a chore to sit and meditate, which is why I think I put it off for so long because I saw it as a chore. So every time I sit down with myself, though, I learn something new. And, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. So the the short answer is no. No.
Joe Dermody:I do not. And stillness sense a a shared awareness. Do I believe there is one? Yes. Absolutely, I do.
Joe Dermody:But at this point, I don't I don't feel it in stillness.
Sherri Keys:So like you, I'm I'm kind of new at the self awareness piece of it and new from the perspective of how important it really is and how I mean, I I just would always think about peace be still and really never understood what that meant. Because I'm always getting in the way of of thoughts and things and trying to drive change to in some aspects that you don't really, you never really control those aspects of change. And I think I'm learning to appreciate a whole level of awareness around that whole peace be still learning that we all should have. And I'm still on that journey, but it's allowing me to start with the awareness of me personally, which I had not really focused on self, and allowing that to kind of be a foundational guide for, you know, how I move forward. So yeah, I'm still on that learning curve on this, but it's a very powerful concept.
Jeffrey Aylor:And we're all at different places in our journeys. Right? And that's perfectly okay. And it's a beautiful thing. And there's something to be shared in that.
Jeffrey Aylor:So with me, it's interesting because just recently I've been doing a lot of meditation seeking guidance on big decisions with life that are I could easily just be looking at that from my own personal perspective, but I can honestly tell you that in the quiet, what I started feeling was the energy of the people I love around me, And their thoughts and feelings about what I was getting ready to make decision about, and how it affects us collectively, not me individually and personally. And here I'm, you know. I think a lot of us do make decisions or seek guidance and then make decisions with the belief that what we do really only affects us. It doesn't affect the collective, but it does. And being aware of the collective thought and feeling.
Jeffrey Aylor:And and it doesn't mean I allow those energies to make the decision for me. But I have to consider that energy around me and the people that are exhibiting it. I was telling the group that I could feel pull could I could feel being pulled because people people had their own perceptions of what they wanted me to decide and do and be and where and how, and and I love that. I love that because I think we all have that. That just is love for somebody, That they care enough to to think that way, but you could I could feel I could feel it.
Jeffrey Aylor:And it was confusing because I'm wondering where is this coming from? And then as I sit there quietly and realize, wait a minute, I can I can almost sense who the energy is coming from? And but what that did was allow me to say, okay, how do I take how do I take these people that I love into consideration as I'm making this decision? And if I make this decision and I go this way, what what's gonna happen? If I make this decision and go that way, what was what's gonna happen?
Jeffrey Aylor:And what is the best decision I can make for the greater? I love this term, the greater good. It comes it's one of my favorite parts of the the Harry Potter series, and Dumbledore whose whole mantra for his life was, you know, doing things for the greater good. And I think that greater good is that that shared awareness that we have to be conscious of. We can be unconscious, and then how do we become conscious of that and allow that to be a part of our part of our experience?
Joe Dermody:So now that you explained some of this that way, it's also an empathic feeling. So I guess I have had moments of stillness that I would attribute to just some empathic feelings. Right? So nobody's talking, but I can feel how people are feeling just by the way they are acting or not even body language. We could be sitting there.
Joe Dermody:They're not showing emotions, but I know how they're feeling. So, yeah, I guess I have felt this occasionally.
Jeffrey Aylor:Well, I know through our conversations, you know, Sherry feels this as as a mother, the nurturing person, the the matriarch of her family, the
Joel Aylor:Yeah.
Jeffrey Aylor:Right, Cherry? You you've expressed that you feel this energy toward you that
Sherri Keys:Yeah. It's, you know, it's it's something that you feel like that is your purpose, right? You feel like just because of the mirrored because of all the love that you have inside for your family, for your friends, for, you know, for even people that you don't know, but you don't ever want to see hurt. You have this heaviness, right?
Jeffrey Aylor:You feel it though. You feel it. And in times when you're sitting there quietly thinking about everything. You feel that, don't you?
Sherri Keys:Absolutely. And your your mind, you know, your mind is just really trying to meet the needs, right? And you're feeling this energy of what it is that people around you are not saying but need. And you're really trying to meet that moment. So yeah.
Jeffrey Aylor:You know, think of the concept of the auric field, you know, we all have an aura. We all have an energy body. Your energy body is actually bigger than your physical body. By a lot in some cases. Some people's auras can be really, really big, and people can feel you from a distance and where you have that person who walks in a room and changes the whole feeling of a room.
Jeffrey Aylor:They're giving off that that arc energy, and that aura can affect, and you can project project that toward people. Right? So it's all this is all so cool. So that leads us into the but
Joel Aylor:You were you were you guys are working on that now in your in your Riki training. In your
Jeffrey Aylor:Riki training.
Joel Aylor:Yep. And all this has been scientifically proven now, and a lot of Joe Dispenza's doctor Joe Dispenza's work. And, basically, they they show the aura fields or your energy fields that that you have and then how to heal them where you have basically holes in it. And they and they do workshops to try to to basically strengthen your aura and strengthen your energy to allow you to to vibrate differently. So it's really cool how, you know, a mystic knowledge is starting to come in scientific proof as well.
Joel Aylor:They're kinda telling the same story, and I love that.
Jeffrey Aylor:Oh, it's exciting. It to me, it's super exciting, the blend of of these principles across all these different disciplines, which is what this whole work is really about. That's why we talk about the commonality and common threads and all the sacred text, but also the commonality and all the threads between disciplines, whether it's science, psychology, philosophy, religion, there's a common thread. It's all common.
Joel Aylor:It's in different language used to describe the same thing.
Jeffrey Aylor:Same
Joel Aylor:thing. The same unity, the same togetherness.
Jeffrey Aylor:So this is this next this next question is one I really wanna take some time to to get into around spirit in relationship. So what shifts in your conversation or your relationships when you approach other people with the assumption that we share a deeper common ground or source.
Joel Aylor:The biggest thing when in those situations, I think I said it once before when we kind of talked or touched on this same thing, is I listen differently. I try to be less defensive, less less quick to to label or to judge, knowing that they are coming from a, you know, they have their own story, they have their own background, they have a reason for being where they are, and then allows me to kind of find a commonality between us. You know, have I experienced what they've experienced? Can I connect to them in that way? And the conversations that you have with them can become more about discovery than it is about being right or wrong or, you know, good or bad, thinking I know better than them or vice versa, any of that.
Joel Aylor:It it just it drops the it drops the what's the word I'm looking for? I struggle when I find that one. It basically it it it drops the labels. It drops the judgment a lot of times and allows you to connect with them in a deeper way.
Joe Dermody:It kind of allows us to have no bias against them. Right? It allows us to just start from a common ground.
Jeffrey Aylor:Like, they are you.
Joe Dermody:Like, they yeah. It it helps us to start by thinking that you're talking with yourself, and it just makes it a lot easier to have a conversation with somebody. It should at least. It breaks down those barriers right from the beginning. Have no silos, you know, and start a conversation.
Joe Dermody:It should make communication easier.
Jeffrey Aylor:I love what you just said, and if if you take the perspective that everyone you talk to, you're really just having a conversation with yourself, how would it be different? If you looked at them as though they are you and you're just talking to yourself, how would that change the conversation you're having?
Joe Dermody:You can be completely honest right from the very beginning.
Jeffrey Aylor:But would you be loving? Would you be compassionate? You be judgmental? Would you be
Joe Dermody:Yeah. You you should be loving. You shouldn't be judgmental. You you should be honest and loving from the very beginning. You shouldn't worry about what what should I hide from this person?
Joe Dermody:How should I approach this situation? How just be open, honest, loving with everybody you talk with. And wouldn't it be great if everybody was exactly the same with you right from the beginning? Right there is heaven on earth.
Sherri Keys:Well, I I think that there is every interaction that you make within life is meant to be you're meant to be in that moment. You're meant to be a part of that person. That person is probably meant to be a part of you at that moment, that God has placed you in this situation, in this conversation for that moment. And so I really do allow life to guide me that way. That I my baseline of where I start is with the understanding and awareness that we have something in common, that there is a purpose for us in our conversation.
Sherri Keys:And maybe sometimes I'm not privy to that right away. But I always start knowing that that I'm here in this moment because I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be in that conversation. There's something I have to give, or there's something I have to receive. So I've allowed that to be kind of like that guiding piece for me.
Sherri Keys:And so far, it's been very awakening. I wanted to also say kind of on that, the other topic we were talking about, just feeling like you can feel the presence of other people, like you can feel the energy without you know, knowing that person or what that energy is. And for me, that's manifested through hugs. Like, I just get I love hugging. Mhmm.
Sherri Keys:And but sometimes people just love hugging me. And and and that's it's just really good. Like we I feel very united in a space where there is there's no perception of anything. It's just, man, that they think I'm a good person. And I think equally that they're a good person too.
Sherri Keys:And we're just we're in that moment. And to me, I find that so often just, you know, it's just a hug. And so
Jeffrey Aylor:So Sherry, you were sharing with me the other day that my granddaughters.
Sherri Keys:Oh my gosh. They're gonna make me cry now.
Jeffrey Aylor:Share share share that story and experience you had with my granddaughters.
Sherri Keys:Yeah. It was just so awesome. So your your daughter-in-law, her and I were talking, and then we got up and finished the conversation. Actually, let me back up. I came in to a very special celebration, somebody's special birthday, and and the girls just they just came up to me, and they just gave me this hug.
Sherri Keys:Like, oh, wow. We're so you know what mean? It was like it was so full of love. I I'm I just and it was so unexpected, and it was just such a moment. And then when I was about to leave and your daughter-in-law and I were just kind of chatting and I got up and we're about to leave and they came over and gave me this the biggest hug.
Sherri Keys:Like, I'll miss you. Can't wait to see you again. And that was just huge for me. It was just so pure. It was so organic.
Sherri Keys:It was I don't know. It was very moving. So I fell in love. That's exactly And that's what I hope everyone feels like when you do that to someone, when you just give them a hug.
Jeffrey Aylor:Well, it makes you wonder. Most children don't see the same way we as adults see, and then we teach them to see the way we see, and sometimes I think we need to reverse that. A big part of this particular topic is about being able to look at others as you approach them beyond their outward expression. I don't want to look at them from their nationality. I don't necessarily want to look at them from their race.
Jeffrey Aylor:I don't want to look at them from their gender. I don't want to look at them from their sexual orientation. I don't want to look at them from whether they're tall or skinny or fat or small or the fact is is that all of us are spirit. We're clear. Right?
Jeffrey Aylor:We're all clear. We're all the same color. We're all the same size. We're all the same essence. We are all absolutely the same characteristics of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith.
Jeffrey Aylor:All these basic characteristics are common. And being able to look beyond all those things that we see that separate us or make us appear or feel to be different to know we're not. We're not. And and that has probably been the most profound life changing part of this experience for me is I've and, you know, those that have been around me for any time will know that my perspectives have changed dramatically dramatically, and for the better. It's the amount of love we we are love.
Jeffrey Aylor:We're all the expression of love. We are God. God is love. God is love. God is spirit.
Jeffrey Aylor:We are gods. If you look at everybody from that perspective, it will change everything. Everything. One last question here before we finish up. So living in the spirit.
Jeffrey Aylor:It's one thing to have a head knowledge. It's another thing to have a heart knowledge and then be able to express it outwardly because that is what changes everything, is that outward expression of the beliefs and concepts we talk about. So if I trusted that the spirit of unity is already present in every moment, what would gently change how you move or I move throughout the day?
Joel Aylor:For me, it's less urgency, less need needing to prove anything, less needing to be right, more willingness to pause and kind of take a step back, that that can be powerful. And and I do that a lot, and and it it's my own thing. It's not something that is necessarily noticed, but especially when when people come together, like, when we get together for our watch parties and things for our for our fan club, I sometimes just sit back and just look at the room, I just take it all in. I just pause, and I I just see it's not even necessarily about the sport we're watching. It's just this it's just the reason to get together and the energy of the room and the people in it and the shared love to warrant for one another.
Joel Aylor:None of us only only you and I, Adam. I think we're actual Bayern Munich fans to start with, and now we've made fans of it. And it's I don't even know if it's that they're truly that interested in the team all the time. It's just they just love getting together and spending time with us as when we all get together. Just take this take that step back and live in that moment.
Joel Aylor:And I think that's for me, it's it's trying to find as much as possible throughout the day a chance to pause and just sit in the moment because all moments are sacred, which is what we talked about. The the the the power of now is is heaven, and we distract ourselves from being in that that heaven with our minds, with with everything that we can do to distract us. But I like to try to pause, relax, and just take it all in, good and bad. You have to learn how to sit in those moments even when things aren't as as you want it to be, but it's still a sacred moment. And to me, that's that's living in in that spirit of unity and that spirit of of life.
Jeffrey Aylor:You know, as you describe that experience we have when we get together as a collective, whatever the the primary reason you come together is, if it's built on love, and if it's built on relationship, if it's built on, then the spirit of God is in it. It doesn't have to be in a specific location. It doesn't have to be with a specific name. It doesn't have to be with you know, we've talked in the past about a concept that really resonates with you and I called pub theology. Right.
Jeffrey Aylor:Created in by, you know, some folks out in Seattle. They get together at a at a brewery or a local pub, and they'd sit around and have a few beers and talk about life and things that were important to them. They may have a topic that day. They may not. It just may be organic.
Jeffrey Aylor:But to them, that was what they perceived to be church in a way. Assembly. They're assembling together, sharing common spirit, maybe having a spirit, right, as they do it. And and yet people would dismiss that as being valid because it's not being done according to some dogmatic religious description or definition, and then they start judging. That's wrong.
Jeffrey Aylor:This is right. That's good. This is bad. Sorry. But if it's built on love, God is love and God is present.
Jeffrey Aylor:We're all breathing. God is in us. Where two or three are gathered, then I'm there in the midst. There he is right there in the midst among us.
Joe Dermody:So for me, I agree with everything you guys just said a 100%. Over the last couple weeks here, I've kind of made it a goal for myself to raise the vibration level around me every day, however I can, be it in my own house, be it online, be it at work, be it at the grocery store. If I can make someone smile, if I can make someone laugh, if I can do anything at all to make a bad situation better, I don't have to change the world. I'm just trying to make somebody happier, better, you know, however however that happens. Right?
Joe Dermody:If I can send a good email, if I can you know, I'm at the grocery store, do a good deed, what whatever that looks like. Right? Even myself, if I can just do something to change a bad situation into better, that's what I try to do, and I try to do at least something good every single day. And I'm I'm just gonna try to keep doing more and more of that, doing my own part, whatever that looks like. I I think that living in the spirit, I think that's what that means to me.
Joe Dermody:I I really like what you said there, Joel, about taking more time to just stop and realize where you are and what is going on and to feel the spirit around around me in general. Right? Because that's what I don't take enough time to do and just to be aware. So while I am working on my self awareness, I also want to stop and be more aware of this this spiritual awareness that is always around. So, yeah, that think that's what I'm gonna start trying to add as well into my my my routine, my daily practice, my daily awareness, and just always awareness.
Joe Dermody:Right?
Jeffrey Aylor:Well, I like how you state that. It's a daily practice. It's something you have to get consciously, not unconsciously. You consciously practice every day. What you've described is expressing what you're feeling inwardly, outwardly.
Jeffrey Aylor:Mhmm. That's the law of correspondence. As within, so without. It's difficult to see it without if you can't feel or sense it within. So the inner work goes first.
Jeffrey Aylor:That leads to the outward expression around you. That's beautiful.
Sherri Keys:I guess for me, it's all about balance. I'm in the season of balance. Balance seems to be the message that God is bringing me both in my personal life, my professional life. You know, I think that it's important for everyone to really take an opportunity to look at things in your life and make sure you have the right balance. I found myself picking up things that God probably didn't have for me to do because he's got that.
Sherri Keys:But I'm trying to pick it up because I think I'm able to do more than God can do because I'm I'm thinking, hey, you know, he told me to do this. Right? But really, that's that's not the purpose. You know, Life is so precious. You're living in the seasons.
Sherri Keys:And just to understand what's most important in those seasons. Me to my aunt turned 88. In this footprint. I haven't seen her for about six years, six, seven years because you you're you're balancing things and not necessarily all the right things. You you feel like you've got so much in that space that you're trying to tackle goes back to those shoulders, right?
Sherri Keys:Feeling like I've got to, you know, to to have everything in my shoulders and really, I I just need to to balance the things that are most important. And so my reflection is just working more on just balancing those things, understanding the seasons that I'm in, and honestly, continue to give more hugs because I think that, hey, what's in me is some good stuff. And I want that energy to be a part, continue to be a part of how I got in my life.
Jeffrey Aylor:That's awesome. You know, my my biggest desire is to move from being reactive to responsive with people. Reaction happens when you don't stop and think in that space between a stimulus and a response. If you just react and you allow it to just happen without stopping yourself sometimes, you're going to say something or do something that's not appropriate given that circumstance, and you don't make things better when you do that. And a lot of times you're reacting to another person or situation, the outward things you see, not the inward element of that person.
Jeffrey Aylor:And if you'll just stop for a second and re change the way you're looking at it, and process and reason that there's a reason this person is doing this, or there's a reason this person is saying this. I know in the core of who they are, that's not what they would do or how they would talk or what they would say. So what is it within them, and how can I become compassionate and respond appropriately? I think that would change the whole dynamic of not just not just individual relationships, interpersonal relationships, but the collective relationships. We do this as individuals.
Jeffrey Aylor:We do this as family. We do this as governments. We do this as businesses. We do this as this whole concept drives competition, not collaboration or cooperation. There's all kinds of reasons why scarcity mindset well, we want something because we don't have it.
Jeffrey Aylor:They have it. I don't think I can get it and have it, and they can have it too. Well, we can all have it. There's an abundance. Stop you know, when you reason that way and look at the circumstances, I think it changes just about everything.
Joel Aylor:I think what you're saying there is powerful. What you're what you're talking about is basically being the difference between being reactive and responsive is essentially when you're reactive, all that is is programming and conditioning from your past. You're responding based on how you were taught. If you allow it to pause for a moment and think through it, you can change how you how you see something or see someone or how you react to somebody. That's the difference between a child and a and and us now.
Joel Aylor:The child their their initial reaction comes from a place of purity and love. So their reaction and their response is going to be from that space. When we when we basically teach them differently and condition them and program them differently, now they're gonna react the way we taught them. And that's not always a place of love. It's not always a place of of, you know, of not being judgmental.
Joel Aylor:And that's extremely powerful when you when you think of it that way. So what we're having to do now as adults, and this is, you know, good good work, basically, we have to unlearn what we've learned.
Jeffrey Aylor:Correct.
Joel Aylor:And in order to basically have a situation where our reaction is actually matching our response, the way we wanna respond, we have to do the inner work to basically unlearn what we've been been taught and get back to being a child.
Jeffrey Aylor:The inner child. It's a lifetime of work, a lifetime of work. Well, we have to bring this conversation to a close. It's not done. There's much more to consider, much more to reflect on, but I do want to just pause and say something really simple.
Jeffrey Aylor:The spirit of unity does not demand agreement. It doesn't demand or require sameness or belief even. It just invites awareness, being aware. The spirit of unity is present in breath, in listening, in kindness, in sharing silence. So Joel, Joe, Sherry, as always, thank you for your honest presence with me here and all the value you bring to this space between.
Jeffrey Aylor:It's it's for those that are listening, I hope this conversation invited you just for even a moment to find a deeper awareness or a shared connection. And if that happened, then we're gonna let that be enough. The spirit of unity may be quieter than we expect, but it is never far from us, and with that, the space between continues. As we come to a close, remember that this journey continues in many expressions. This podcast is part of a family of partner podcasts.
Jeffrey Aylor:Awakening heaven on earth. The Space Between Heaven and Earth and Living Heaven on Earth are three companion podcasts exploring spiritual awakening from complementary perspectives. Awakening heaven on earth offers the core teachings and mystical reflections on unity, love, and conscious living. The space between creates room for dialogue, reflection, and lived conversation around those teachings. Living heaven on earth focuses on basic spiritual practices that help embody these insights in daily life.
Jeffrey Aylor:Together, they form a unified journey of understanding, experience, and integration. Inviting listeners to remember their connection with the divine, with one another, and with the living world. You can find all of them available on the same podcast streaming platforms wherever you listen. And if music helps carry these teachings deeper into the heart, The Unity. Awakening Heaven on Earth album is available on all major music streaming services as a musical companion to this journey.
Jeffrey Aylor:Wherever you engage through listening, reflection, conversation, or music. May it gently remind you, you are not separate. You belong to the one life and heaven is already unfolding within you. Until next time. Walk gently, love deeply, and embody heaven on earth.