Practical Spirituality with Mark Davis

[intro music] Tantra Illuminated with Dr. Christopher Wallis is a journey through the depths of the human experience as viewed through the lens of the tradition called Nondual Shaiva Tantra. This multi-format podcast delves into the fascinating world of classical tantra and its intersections with philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, human development, and the broader world of spirituality. [outro music] Today's episode is a conversation, and I'm speaking with Mark Davis, whom I've known for nearly 30 years, going back to my ashram days in India and Upstate New York. Mark is the founder of Hypno-CBT, where CBT stands for cognitive behavioral therapy, and this is a science-based therapeutic model he's developed over the last 20 years. He has trained close to 3,000 practitioners, more than 1,000 of which are now certified in his method. He's also a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. The college he runs is influenced by Stoic philosophy, Kashmir Shaivism, and CBT. In this conversation, we explore the contemplative and practical roots of his work. We discuss stilling the mind, agency, self-objectification, disinhibition, and the pragmatist reading of Abhinavagupta. We also refer to some genuinely practical techniques along the way. What we didn't get to in this conversation is Mark's core competence, that is hypnotherapy. This is a significant omission which will be corrected in a future conversation because Mark has a unique view of hypnosis as exemplifying the innate divine capacity to reimagine manifestation with therapeutic practice as the method of dehypnotizing back to that source. So I'm hoping to invite him back for a second conversation soon on exactly that, because Mark claims Hypno-CBT is strongly grounded in Abhinavagupta's cognitive philosophy. Still, this was a great first conversation with this accomplished and intelligent man. I especially appreciate his evidence-based approach. Hope you too find it interesting. I'm here with Mark Davis, who I've known for many, many, many years. Mark, thanks for joining me on the podcast.

You're so very welcome. It's, it's great to be here and to, uh, be able to be part of this, uh, incredible piece of work you are doing. How many years do you think we've known each other?

Uh, I don't know, but probably at least from the mid-'90s. So what does that, uh, make it 30 years?

Yeah, maybe 30 years. 30 years. I can certainly think of early 2000s.

Yeah.

But, uh, in, in, in Upstate New York.

Yeah. Yeah. So let's start not right at the beginning, [chuckles] but let's start, um, from what was the impact of your exposure to the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism or Tantric Shaivism, uh, though you and I both knew it by the former name back then, and how did that contribute to your journey and, um, uh, a little bit about that h- that journey from then to now and, um, how you, how you became expert in, um, what you're expert in now and how those teachings are, are something that have informed your development and the development of y- of what you teach and also perhaps somewhat have become a sounding board that you react to. Anyway, that's a broad [chuckles] scope.

That's-

But, um-

That's a broad scope. Yeah.

Yeah.