The Other Side of Things Michael Brant DeMaria, Ph.D.

00:00 Intro06:04 How we met and how he finally published his book07:30 Madness and Alternative states of reality11:00 Mad in America and Others Stories13:04 A Fight To Be - his book14:07 Ron's 23rd Birthday in the Psych Ward16:26 "You don't look schizophrenic."17:00 Auntie Ray, Ron's Mentor17:33 Fugitive Literature18:28 Insulin Shock19:01 "Coming Out" as a psychiatric survivor AS a psychologist19:51 Michael's Soulchosis at 1822:00 Being a Double Agent24:42 What is psychosis? 27:12 Madness as a search 29:37 Neurodiversity33:37 Underworld Journey34:27 Soul Initiations40:00 Exquisite Sensitivity, Empathy and Intuition41:11 Intuitive Feelers42:32 Reliance on Feeling is discouraged in our culture45:33 Ron's visit to a Zen Ashram48:21 Working with Families - Ron's new project49:00 Typical Trajectory of someone who may be headed towards psychosis50:00 Importance of a supportive family52:00 Open Dialogue58:14 The problem with trying to control what isn't controllable1:06:00 Each person is on their own journey1:10:00 Jesus vs Christ Consciousness1:11:51 What truly heals?1:12:00 Don't Push the River and Windhorse1:17:00 The Ocean, The Mystic, The Madman and Swimming Lessons1:19:00 Mind Freedom1:25:00 Hearing Voices Network1:30:00 Mad Pride and David Oaks1:35:00 Ron's current work
Ron is an amazing human being, a resilient soul and a true elder and wise sage.  We first met when a mutual friend of ours introduced us.  Ron had not published his moving and poignant book, "A Fight to Be: A Psychologist's Experience from Both Sides of the Locked Door," yet and I'm so honored that our connection helped encourage him to finally publish it.  It is a riveting story that moved me to my core, given that I have had friends and family members and my own experiences with extreme states of consciousness that I prefer to call soulchosis.
I've wanted to have Ron on for a long time and we both finally found time in both of our schedules for this deep dive into psychosis, madness and soulchosis! Ron is also involved in a new family oriented approach to helping those experiencing madness that draws from Open Dialogue a process that has eradicated hospitalizations for psychosis in Lapland.  
Ron's website: https://www.ronaldbassman.com/Ron's book: https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Be-Ronald-Bassman/dp/0979626609Mind Freedom's website: https://mindfreedom.org/Hearing Voices network: https://www.hearing-voices.org/Mad in America: https://www.madinamerica.com/

Happy Halloween and welcome to my new podcast! I will still be doing my other podcast: Musitations™: Exploring Music, Meditation, Creativity and Wisdom, however, this is the beginning of a much deeper and larger conversation on many challenging topics where we need to begin to move from the friction of contradiction to the possibilities of creative paradox. 
Introduction:
No one knows everything, but everyone knows something no one else knows – including you!  Welcome to The Other Side of Things – I am your host Dr. Michael DeMaria and for 35 years I’ve been a guide of the soul. On The Other Side of Things we explore alternative perspectives on challenging topics ranging from love, sex, death, and madness, to dreamwork, breathwork, and other cutting edge healing modalities. We live on a precipice as a species, so lets jump in.