Originally from Tennessee, I began my collegiate career studying history and literature at Miami University of Ohio, but all of these studies left me feeling empty in terms of understanding what the meaning of human history could possibly be. I came to perceive that the building blocks of collective meaning of history is built within the subjective experiences of individuals. I no longer felt satisfied with external analysis and instead became drawn towards psychology as it represented the pathway towards understanding the inner world. However, psychology, as it is practiced in the American mainstream, places soul, spirituality, and meaning at the periphery of its study whereas I felt that these aspects naturally belong at the very center. Meanwhile, my dream life was very active and the trendiness of materialistic to explain the phenomenon happening within the inner world made no rational sense.

It was at this juncture I began reading the works of Carl Jung. In 1996, at the age of 25, I was invited to attend a retreat run by Journey into Wholeness, an organization fusing Christianity with Jungian psychology, where I met for the first time the author and lecturer, Dr. Robert Johnson (He, We, Balancing Heaven and Earth), Robert's presence, not just as a person but as a lecturer, left me with the impression that he had a deep, intimate, and reasonable understanding of the inner world. Hearing about my intellectual and spiritual dilemma, I was encouraged by other attendees to apply to Pacifica Graduate Institute where depth and soul were validated with intellectual integrity. I applied, got accepted, and after moving to California to attend Pacifica, I was invited by Robert to have a cup of tea with him at his home in San Diego. After hearing some of my dreams, Robert left the room for a few minutes then returned and offered to come out of retirement to do my analysis. As his last analysand, Robert saw me as inheriting his Dhamma, his spiritual teachings. For those who do not know of Robert's work, he had become well known through translating the Arthurian legends, Greek and Native American mythology, and Hindu mythology (he spent the last twenty years of his career, six months at a time, living in India) into a practical, relationship-based interpretation of Jung. Robert is generally regarded by many in the Jungian community as a Christian mystic, but my experience of him was that of a classical Indian Guru who did not believe in guru-ship. Robert disdained the tendency for spiritually endowed people to be elevated above others.

My time at Pacifica and my work with Robert was the first stage of dislodging me from the vagaries of materialism (materialism is 'mom-ism', as James Hillman once phrased it). The Unconscious, with all of its archetypal material, began pouring out through my dream life. These dreams, in participation with Robert's guidance, set the stage for future development for many years to come. It was during this period that I became initiated into my identity as a monk and contemplative. Although I was becoming educated in psychotherapeutic theory and practice from Pacifica, it was not my destiny to chart a straight line through the professional world of counseling. I needed 'time in the desert', so to speak, to have the space to develop an inner relationship with God. A compromise was reached - I could gain experience and training in professional settings but it was done within places radically different than my upbringing. I was inexorably drawn to working with indigenous communities beginning on the remote island of Molokai in Hawaii then on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. In both of these places, I found indigenous teachers who shared with me their spiritual philosophy and the deeper meaning of their cultural mythology. It was also during this time I began a friendship with the clinical psychologist and author, Dr. Eduardo Duran (Buddha in Red Face, Cultural Imperialism) who has been a much welcomed source of encouragement and validation through the years.

During this period I worked with three other Jungian analysts; Meredith Moon of Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Anita Chapman of Asheville, NC, and Father Gregory Santos of Flagstaff, AZ. Each of these analyses offered their own gifts, but it was Father Santos in particular, a Trappist monk and scholar in Aquinas theology, who gave me the theological framework to explore and inhabit other spiritual traditions while still retaining the essence of a Christian contemplative. In 2009, with the backing, blessings, and encouragement from my dreams, I transitioned to Chiangmai, Thailand. During the first week at my guesthouse, I met an American Buddhist nun on her way to her monastery, Kyiatisaung, in Thaton, Myanmar. Kyiatisaung, an extremely spiritually charged environment, became another deeply transformative phase of my life. The head monk, Sayado Kyiatisaung, a very prominent and auspicious personality within the Buddhist world of SE Asia, invited me to ordain and for the next seven years I would periodically return to practice as a monk. In the Burmese system it is acceptable for lay people to be a part-time monk as it was the way for ordinary people to position themselves energetically in close proximity to the Buddha and then apply the elevation of consciousness within the mundane world. During my time at Kyiatisaung my psychic abilities expanded beyond imagination, I was able to access the archetypal dimensions of higher level Janna states and commune with ontologically subsistent spiritual beings. Most Vipassana practices regard visions and visitations by 'beings' as illusory manifestations of Mind, but in Burma, it is an objective reality accessed through subjective experience. I remember many times walking barefoot in my red ochre robes questioning why 'me', an ordinary guy from Tennessee, was accessing the mystical realm of the Burmese, which, even for Burmese monks, was considered to be quite extraordinary. The Burmese response was put quite simply - as a relative of the Buddha, I was called back home. Yet, at the same time, I felt a deeper responsibility to return to the mundane world to live out a life my soul and spirit had prepared for me. If it were not for my work with Robert and Father Santos, I would not have been able to manage or integrate these experiences as a monk while still retaining my identity as 'Todd'.

Still living in the ordinary world of earning a living and navigating relationships, in 2012 my first son (my second son arrived in 2023) came to my partner and me, and so we returned to the States where I was offered a position as a civilian therapist within the US military. Fortunately, the position accorded an opportunity to work at bases overseas and for the next eight years I served in Korea, Okinawa, mainland Japan, Spain, Germany, and Italy. When I was not on assignment I would find time to return to Chiangmai and then to Kyiatisaung and resume my training. On the surface, the worlds of the military and a Burmese monastery are in radical opposition but I discovered that the identities of the monk, the warrior, and the healer are unified on a fundamental level. Each of these aspects require discipline, dedication, and the willingness to sacrifice the provincial concerns of the ego to cultivate the higher good. The onset of Covid and the civil war in Myanmar have unfortunately made returning to Kyiatisaung improbable, but hopefully in the future it will soon open again.

In Father Santos's interpretation of Aquinas, Aquinas posited three main principles: 1) the world, all of the world, is Good because it comes from God, 2) all things are in process towards unification with God, and 3) it is essential not to confuse substance from form. Thomas Merton, in his journey to the East was expressing a similar sentiment when he said, that as a Catholic priest, he hoped to become the best Buddhist monk possible. Merton was condemned by conservative elements within the Catholic church, but I believe they failed to appreciate the deeper point. There should be no conflict between spiritual traditions since all traditions come from God. If we are secure in our spiritual identity then we should be able to commune with others in openness and respect. We should recognize that the outer form of religious tradition and exposition is merely clothing for the inner essence of God who is at work within all forms. In this context, we are able to learn from one another in a spirit of peace and cooperation to strengthen and heighten our spiritual identities within our own traditions and lineage.

During my time at Pacifica, primarily through the influence of a dear friend, Dr. Henry Kagey (proprietor of the San Diego Rolfing Institute) I became very interested in mind/body integration. Despite Jung's genius in developing a language of the dynamics and structure of the inner world, the absence of the mechanisms and means to achieve conscious embodiment represents, in Jungian terminology, the inferior function. Yet the inferior function is also the gateway from which God enters. Attempting to forego the traditional counseling route, I spent a couple of years while living in Hawaii going to school for Chinese medicine as a way for understanding more deeply the intersection betweein mind and body. The practice of Tai Chi and Qi Gong eventually led to practicing Hatha yoga which became more fully developed during my time in the military. In 2021 when the world was struggling with Covid, I also experienced a series of personal crises from which my yoga and Vipassana meditation practices could not mend. Recalling a previous sequence of dreams, I decided to train in Kundalini yoga as its explicit purpose is to strengthen the energetic fields that sustain the physiological systems that govern emotional and mental states within the body. I found both the philosophy (particularly that of the tripart Mind and synthesizing opposites) and practice of Kundalini to fit me like a glove. The mental and astral realms that had been so prevalent within me at last found a way to enter my body. I began having more control over my emotions and thoughts which cleared more space to have deeper and more fruitful relationships with others.

Deeper still, Kundalini has brought me into a fuller relationship with subtle energies within my body and environmental surroundings. I trained to become an instructor primarily in SE Asia but completed the training with Shiv Charon at his ashram in Portugal. On my return to Thailand I passed through Greece where a friend from Pacifica introduced me to Elleftherios Tholos, a master herbalist and therapist in Epidauras, who is working with a team of other therapist to revive the holistic healing protocols from the ancient temple of Asclepius, a major institution from ancient Greece that held a crucial role in the spiritual life of classical Greece for over one thousand years. The ancient protocol involves purifying the body through herbal detoxification so the patient ,or initiate, may enter and sleep within the sacred dream incubator to receive healing dreams. The therapeutic goal is to access deeper levels of soul to achieve unification with spirit. From an energetic perspective, however, a natural consequence of following the ancient protocol is very similar to Kundalini yoga in terms of elevating consciousness, enhancing sensitivity to subtle energy, and becoming more proficient at channeling and focusing energy to support therapeutic transformation.

Recognizing a shared philosophy, Elleftherios and I are currently partnering to establish the Asclepian (a multi-disciplinary team of therapists), a holistic healing center based upon the therapeutic principles and protocols from the ancient world. For me, this project is a culmination of all of my spiritual and professional work. The underlying archetypal structure of healing - purification, catharsis, symbolic death, and resurrection - serves to integrate mind, body, soul, and spirit as a process of conscious embodiment. My studies in the humanities at Miami effectively tuned me into the philosophy of ancient Greece. Psychoanalysis, depth, and Jungian psychology are also deeply rooted in Greek myth and philosophy, my experiences as a monk at Kyiatisaung initiated me beyond doubt into the realities of the expansiveness of the spiritual realm, and Kundalini yoga has been instrumental in grounding these experiences within my body with balance and harmony.

Despite all of the doom and gloom and intense darkness swirling through the collective unconsciousness today, it is also the case that we live in a major transitional stage for humanity with significant opportunities for spiritual elevation. The Piscean Age of collective reliance on religious and political institutions is falling away and now, with the emergence of the Aquarian Age, a new space for growth and maturation of the individual grounded in soul, spirit, and body is gaining momentum. Healing is not a passive activity. We need teachers to pass along the methods ,but in the end, it is our personal work, courage, and acceptance of responsibility that is ultimately needed for transformation and healing. We are the Guru ... the divine teacher is within. Just as the ancient Platonic philosophers value consciousness, self-sovereignty, and free-will, as therapists, we position these values as foundational to restoring the dignity and spiritual evolution of humanity as a whole.

We are warriors of the light shining through the darkness ... ancient and new ... beautiful and bountiful. If you have read this short autobiography and these words resonate with you, please reach out. The turn inwards is not an escape from the world but a strategic means for substantial change.