Roger Linden’s spiritual search began with a brief glimpse at age six and reading J. Krishnamurti as a teenager on Hampstead Heath. After decades of meditation, teaching Transcendental Meditation, and encounters with Jean Klein and Tony Parsons, a walk on the Heath in 1999 brought a recognition that overturned his expectations: the sense of separation fell away, yet life remained remarkably ordinary.

In this two-part conversation with Rick Archer, Roger distinguishes temporary experiences of bliss and expanded awareness from that lasting recognition. He describes how personality, thoughts, emotions, and conditioning continued, and explores whether spiritual practice prepares us for an awakening it cannot manufacture.

The conversation then turns to well-being in everyday life. Drawing on his experience with meditation and his training in psychotherapy, the Feldenkrais method, and the Alexander technique, Roger describes how subtle tension can accompany our efforts to meditate, act, or manage difficult feelings. He suggests that allowing a little ease—without suppressing emotional reactions—can help us appreciate a quiet well-being already glimpsed in a smile, laughter, or a moment of connection.

Rick presses for practical clarity about conflict, deeply ingrained conditioning, and challenging life circumstances. Together, they explore why awareness can seem to come and go, how spiritual practice carries into daily activity, and how to continue seeking without overlooking the life available now. Roger also points to Sydney Banks and the Three Principles as a related approach to understanding thought, experience, and innate well-being.

In 1998 he started attending meetings with Tony Parsons, author of The Open Secret. On a retreat early in 1999 a comment by Tony “triggered another powerful glimpse”. A few days later whilst walking, all sense of separation fell away. It was realised that there is only consciousness. Since then there has simply been unity. He leads regular groups in London and elsewhere in the UK.

• Website: rogerlinden.com
• Roger’s email: rogerlinden4@icloud.com
• Mentioned during the interview: Three Principles – Sidney Banks
  • sydneybanks.com
  • threeprinciplesfoundation.org

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook group

Interview recorded October 3, 2026

Award-winning translator, author, poet, teacher, and workshop leader, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is core faculty and Dean at the Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Father Richard Rohr. Her translation for Shambhala Publications of the fourteenth-century contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing received a 46th Georgia Author of the Year Award. Martin Laird calls her translation of Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence “the new standard,” and it was named by Spirituality & Practice to its Best Books List. At the University of Georgia Carmen earned an MA and a PhD in Medieval Studies, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London, she worked with monastic manuscripts in London and Oxbridge libraries and translated homilies by the tenth-century Benedictine abbot, Ælfric of Eynsham, published as God of Mercy: Ælfric’s Sermons and Theology (Mercer University Press). Carmen has been interviewed on the BBC World Service The Compass, NPR Morning Edition, Center for Action and Contemplation’s Everything Belongs, Turning to the Mystics, and Learning How To See, and many other podcasts. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, in the College Writing Programs, and she is often found in the marsh chanting Psalm 46:10 in Old English.

Barbara Whitfield was a researcher at the University of Connecticut Medical School with psychiatry professor Bruce Greyson. Together they researched the after-effects of people who have had a Near-Death Experience. She taught at Rutger's University's Institute for Alcohol and Drug Studies School for 12 years, served on the board and executive board of The International Association for Near-Death Studies and was president of the Kundalini Research Network. She's been a guest expert on Larry King Live (twice), The Today Show, Man Alive, Donahue, Unsolved Mysteries, PM Magazine, Good Morning America, Oprah, Joan Rivers, Sonya Freeman, CNN Medical News, and Alabama Public Television, Imus, and All Things Considered. She also writes self-help books and provides workshops and speaking engagements on topics of recovery, near-death experiences and natural spirituality.

Charles L Whitfield MD was a physician, psychotherapist, and internationally recognized expert on mental illness, behavioral problems, and recovery. He was an associate professor of medicine at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for 4 years and then taught medicine and addiction medicine as associate professor of medicine, psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine for eight years. He has been on the faculty of the Rutgers University Summer Institute of Alcohol and Drug Studies since 1978, and in the private practice of medicine and psychotherapy since 1976. He has been voted by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America every year since 1994.

Barbara and Charles had a private practice in Atlanta, Georgia helping adults who have been repeatedly traumatized, who are having problems in living, who want to come off of psych drugs and/or opiates, and who may have had a spiritually transformative experience.

Books:

• Dragon Energy: Myth and Reality (New)
• Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the Near-Death Experience and Other Doorways to Our Soul
• The Natural Soul: Unity with the Spiritual Energy that Connects Us: What it Looks like and how It Feels
• AFGEs: A Guide to Self-Awareness and Change
• The Power of Humility: Choosing Peace over Conflict in Relationships

Website: barbara-whitfield.com