Soul Forge Podcast

59: Reincarnation - A Thought Experiment

What is reincarnation and is there even such a thing? Shawn and Tracy conduct a thought experiment, imagining that reincarnation is a real phenomenon, and then piece together how it might actually work.

The immortal soul's travels and the ultimate journey.

The consciousness equation...the give and take between the mind and the soul.

Destinations - The Soul's choice vs higher power.

Achieving enlightenment, lessons learned, what is the purpose?

Do we have a soul? What is the spark of consciousness?

Self-awareness, memory and emotions vs instinct.

Every soul is on an individual journey and faces many obstacles in a quest to learn lessons and level up.

CHANCES ARE...a brief discussion about the film from 1989.

Are people that we consider 'old souls' nearing enlightenment?

What is the disconnect between the soul and consciousness, why are there memory blocks?

How history repeats itself and worldwide consciousness is being risen.

Akashic records - accessing your soul file.

This week's podcast promo: Cigar Nerds Podcast

58: Soulmates and Intimacy

Exploring the ideas of soulmates, twin flames, intimacy and chemistry.

• A soulmate allows us to be our true, open and honest self.

Shawn talks about his own experiences feeling that soulmate connection.  There is discussion on several definitions of what a soul mate is.  The energetic cloth and the patterns and wave lengths that bind two people together in a soulmate connection.  Soulmates come into our lives to awaken and challenge us to become our best versions of ourselves.

• There is more than one type of soulmate.

Twin flames.  Are they really a thing?  There is talk of the many life times of connection between two people.  This is not necessarily a romantic relationship, but it can be.

We talk about the ideas of connection and chemistry and how they can be the same, but also different.  With our soulmates we take the mask off to reveal our inner selves.  Is the soulmate connection a fated eventuality?

This week's podcast promo: The Rusted Robot Podcast

57: What Is Beauty?

Unrealistic beauty standards from around the world!

• Photoshop, advertisements, marketing and society,
• Instagram stars and beauty reality,
• How clothes can help,
• Fake it until you make it - confidence and contentment,
• Minimal effort can make a huge difference in self esteem

Unrealistic Beauty Standards for Women:

• tanned skin vs pale,
• social status,
• Geisha culture,
• large vs small body shape,
• foot binding

Unrealistic Beauty Standards for Men:

• Muscles vs The Dad Bod,
• the full beard look,
• baldness and the comb-over,
• height

56: Forks In The Road

Life is full of choices.  Choice, by its very nature, has multiple options.  These option points are what we call forks.  You can choose to follow one path or another, and the outcomes can be life altering.

This week, Shawn is joined by Dave, Rene and Bob.  Together, these 4 friends discuss some of the forking choices in their lives.  They talk about various kinds of forks, such as those dealing with school, career, marriage, and regret.

This episode will explore how life could have gone.  How do you define success?  What about mental forks, such as age and aging? 

There is even talk about celebrity encounters, the importance of connection and life stages.

This week's podcast promo: Watchathon of Rassilon

55: Confidence Unmasked

Does confidence come from within or through cosplay?

Cosplay expert Karen enters the Soul Forge to give us a brief overview of who she is and what she does.

• How did Karen and I meet?
• Karen's cosplay and her challenge,
• The cosplay community is vast and varied,
• Shyness can bring fear,
• Social awkwardness and the costume solution,
• Personal confidence and the backlash,
• Costuming and the limitations,
• GISH: Greatest International Scavenger Hunt, an intro...
• The non-binary comfort zone,
• Hair stories,

Find Karen on Twitter @flynndanarra

Find Karen on Instagram @ladydanger47

This week's promo: The Nerd Bliss Podcast

54: Summer Is Coming!

Summer time and the promise of possibility! 

Camping traditions....
Nan and Jean and the Beals Lake story,

Watermelon, hotdogs, fires, marshmellows, fireworks, crawdads, hiking and biking

Yardsale Season,

Music festivals,

Fishing stories and Xbox adventures,

Brother Adventures: hiking, concert road trips,

August life celebration event,

ReBoSh weekends

This week's promo: Transmissions from Atlantis

53: The Human Race Has No Finish Line

A discussion about culture and race.

• Diversity in the workplace,
• I know a lot of white people,
• The world isn't just black and white,
• The George Costanza dilemma,
• My own limited inter-racial contact,
• The trouble with racial labels,
• Racism in Fandom: Ghostbuster, Star Wars and Kelly Marie Tran,
• The Time Travel solution,
• Black Lives Matter,
• Gay Pride,
• The shift in society and changing language,
• The N word,
• Education equals enlightenment! 

This week's promo: Terminus Doctor Who Podcast

52: A Look Behind The Curtain

Gratitude, Gratefulness, Appreciation

Oftentimes, we do not express just how much people mean to us, either for the things they have done, or what they have said.  It's important to acknowledge those people who have helped or guided us, whether they are aware of their impact or not.

Here is a list of things that I'm grateful for, and there are many...

Hope, Positivity, Communication

This week we take a look at the Earth Station One Podcast Network.  We'll be exploring how a network operates, and how it helps out its members.

The Rusted Robot Podcast hits 200 episodes.

Who are the people behind the hashtag #podpeople?

The podcast concludes with some juicy gossip I should probably not be sharing, but it explains the anger I've been feeling as of late.

This week's promo: Revcast Shark Podcast