States of Consciousness From Fear to Love with Regina Leffers, Ph.D.

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Spiral Dynamics is a theory of human development that describes how individuals and societies evolve through a sequence of progressively more complex value systems or worldviews in response to changing life conditions. This deep dialogue offers an accessible, embodied exploration of consciousness through Spiral Dynamics reimagined as “facets” rather than a rigid hierarchy. Leffers outlines an understanding of these facets and how to deliberately grow ourselves, which becomes both a path of personal liberation and a contribution to a more compassionate, interconnected world. Leffers invites listeners to see consciousness as an elastic field that expands and contracts, with facets such as survival, belonging, individuation, compliance, risk, care, and authentic living each carrying both gifts and shadows in how we meet life, ourselves, and others. Instead of “higher” levels being morally superior, she portrays them as different ways that light passes through a single diamond of being, each with love-based expressions and fear-based distortions. She suggests using meditation, body awareness, gratitude, heart coherence, and honest reflection on love versus fear. She reveals how to move to states of consciousness where genuine gratitude, forgiveness, and creative problem-solving emerge. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

Bio

Regina Leffers, Ph.D. is the retired Director of the Center of Excellence for the Built Environment, and Professor of Sustainable Construction for the College of Engineering at Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her undergraduate degrees are in Psychology and Philosophy, and her doctoral degree is in Philosophy from Purdue University. She teaches classes on consciousness and meditation and has practiced meditation since 1980.

Regina Leffers is the author of:

• Sustainable Construction and Design (Pearson 2009)
• The Green Age: Transforming Your Life Choices for the 21^st Century (Green Age Press 2011)
• Rethinking the Heart of Being Human (CreateSpace 2013)
  
• I Am A Miracle Magnet: (In Ten Easy Steps) (CreateSpace 2016)
• What Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2019)
• My Darling: Memoirs of a Buddha Girl (Regina Leffers 2023)
• This Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2025)

To learn more about the work of Regina Leffers, Ph.D. go to www.reginaleffers.com

Topics explored:

• Leffers shares how she discovered and healed her brain injury
• Facets of consciousness (survival, belonging, individuate, comply, risk/reindividuate, care/empathy, authentic living)
• Spiral Dynamics reinterpreted beyond hierarchy
• Love vs. fear as embodied states and guides to action
• Alpha vs. beta brainwaves, forgiveness, and gratitude
• Brain injury, neurofeedback, and healing of emotional capacity
• Heart–brain coherence and the “heart as brain”
• Risk, reindividuation, and leaving religious institutions
• Empathy, generosity, and formative childhood experiences
• Intuition, synchronicity, and experiences of deep connectivity
• Polarization, “othering,” and practical tools for interrupting judgment and cultivating gratitude

Host: Justine Willis Toms    Interview Date: 12/5/2025   Program Number: 3854

Music Playlist

Album: Oracle
Artist: Michael Hedges
Essay and midbreak: Track 13 When I was four