Today I’m talking with Lion Goodman, who, after a near-death experience at 26, has spent 5 decades researching the nature of consciousness, spirituality, and healing. He has instructed more than 500 healers, therapists, and coaches around the world in trauma-informed therapeutic coaching. His teaching methods have been vetted by the International Coaching Federation and the Association for Coaching. Today he is speaking loud about the role of beliefs in our life and the infrastructure of the human mind.

Brushing Close to Death

Lion graduated with a degree in Consciousness Studies but ended up as a traveling salesman in order to make money. On one trip, he had stopped to help a man whose car had broken down in the middle of the Mojave Desert. After 3 days of gaining each other’s trust, the man attempted to kill Lion and shot him in the head.

After many hours, Lion was able to talk to and understand the man, and they came to an agreement: the man would not kill him and Lion would not turn him in. He later went to the hospital alone, where he was told that he was very lucky to have survived—which he says was not luck, but his being blessed. He had been ready to accept death but now wanted to grow and teach from this experience.

The Discovery of Self

When Lion went through his near-death experience, he recognized that he was not simply his physical body. There was a him that was not his body, and as he says, most people who have been in a near death experience are not afraid of death, knowing that there is something on the other side.

When people ask the question of ‘Who am I?’ Lion explains how he went about answering that question for himself. As a kid he read and learned as much as possible, and approached his studies as an exploration of who he was. He attended over 100 spirituality workshops and training as an adult. Beliefs are the core of the mind, he says, and finding out who you are is a discovery of the core self beneath those layers of belief. Experience is the best way of informing yourself of who you are.

Healing Past Traumas

Negative experiences like a broken arm, Lion says. Physical wounds can heal and become stronger as they scar, but injuries of the mind are often not given the chance to heal as the brain forces them down and away. Healing from trauma or bad experiences is simply processing those events in a safe way. But the beliefs we develop from trauma are often what damages us the most, not the trauma itself.

Lion explains that we can also carry trauma not just from our own pasts, but from generations before us and potentially even past lives. The environment of friends, family, and media can all be traumatizing. Humans are constantly trying to float above the pool of trauma of our culture, which can include things we’ve never experienced personally, such as slavey and native genocide. Lion says that we have to start with ourselves as an act of “clearing this on behalf of previous generations.”

Listen in to learn more about Lion’s books and his multi-dimensionality practices, as well as his approach to rapid, deep-belief healing.