The Other Side of Things (E11) Bipolar Awakenings with Sean Blackwell

00:37 Introduction
01:39 Who is Sean Blackwell?
03:59 Our mutual connection to Holotropic Breathwork.
05:32 Sean's Bipolar Episode and Hospitalization.
07:22 Working with his partner's nieces psychotic episodes.
07:57 Dr. John Weir Perry and Dr. Loren Moser's influence on Sean.
09:38 Sean has done 60-70 retreat with people around the world.
13:16 The overlap of spirituality and psychosis in Sean's work.
13:40 Two camps: Peer Support vs. Transpersonal psychology
16:31 Grof's the Stormy Search for the Self
17:21 The 13 basic delusions people experience
17:46 When flip into paranoia no healing can happen!
18:35 The blissful psychosis vs. the Paranoid psychosis
21:35 Trauma and psychosis
22:06. Healing the chakra's somatically
23:08 What's truly healing is the healing field!
24:35 Sean's discovery of surrogate breathwork.
32:34 Dealing with intense shadow energies - even what feels like feels demonic
36:34 Sean's discovery of distance healing through his work with Family Constellation Therapy
43:21 Sean's current understanding of The Healing Field.
50:27 Tribal Shamanism, New Age Shamanism vs Quantum Shamanism
56:34 A name for every name in the river, but not the river itself.
59:23 Developing an Integral Consciousness
1:01:23 Accessing the quantum dimension.
1:02:31 The most powerful protection.
1:07:36 Sean's understanding of soul.
1:11:00 Sean's frustration with how little people understand the work he does.
1:16:00 How to find Sean's work.

Since 2007 Sean Blackwell has been researching and teaching about the spiritual dimension and healing potential of bipolar disorder through his YouTube channel, bipolarORwakingUP. His videos graphically illustrate subjects such as spiritual emergency, transpersonal psychology, and the evolution of consciousness, always demonstrating how these themes relate to transcending the bipolar condition. His book, “Am I Bipolar or Waking Up?”, published in 2011, describes his own bipolar awakening, subsequent hospitalization, and complete recovery, which happened in 1996. 
 
In 2013, Sean started The Bipolar Awakenings Healing Retreat, a pioneering program for people who wanted to heal from their so-called incurable condition. In September of 2016, Sean received his certification as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator with Grof Transpersonal Training, the official training program of Dr. Stanislav Grof. This education has been fundamental to the development of the healing retreat process, as a modified form of Holotropic Breathwork, Bipolar Breathwork, provides the basis for the bioenergetic healing process which takes place during retreats.
 
Based on his experience facilitating private retreats, Sean developed two new online healing modalities. In 2020, he launched Distance Surrogate Breathwork and Conscious Emotional Clearing, as two very affordable options that could help people begin to heal their bipolar conditions safely, within the comfort of their own home.

Sean's website and link to his new book: https://www.bipolarawakenings.com/
Michael's Website: https://michaeldemaria.com/
Michael's Links: https://michaeldemaria.com/michaels-links/

What is The Other Side of Things?

No one knows everything, but everyone knows something no one else knows.

We live in an age of extremes, where certainty is prized and nuance is often lost. Yet life happens mostly in the in-between—in the twilight places where opposites find relationship, where identities soften, difference is honored and where deeper truths emerge organically.

On The Other Side of Things is an exploration of these liminal realms. Drawing from psychology, mythology, spirituality, creativity, nature, and lived experience, Michael invites listeners into The Way of Twilight: a path that neither rejects mystery nor abandons reason, but allows both to illuminate one another.

Together we explore the thresholds between worlds, perspectives, and ways of knowing, seeking a form of wisdom spacious enough to hold contradiction, complexity, and wonder - particularly on difficult topics like death, madness and intimacy.

This is a podcast for curious souls who sense that reality is always larger than our explanations of it—and that the deepest insights are often found on the other side of what we think we know.