Are you feeling the calling, the summons of this time?

As one epoch closes and another begins, we find ourselves in a liminal space of emergence—where heightened connectivity and increasing energetic conductivity offer new human permissions and possibilities. What inner call might we be sensing as a new civilization seeks to be born? What might this time be summoning within us as active co-creators of change?

In this Portalsepisode, Aviv Shahar, David Price Francis, and friends explore the idea that we may be witnessing a profound shift—from the age of ‘great leaders’ to the rise of self-leadership. The energetics of this new epoch appear to be awakening latent potentials within us, expanding our capacity, agency, and permission to act with purpose and vision.

Aviv, David, and the team surface key ingredients of self-leadership to cultivate at this time such as self-authoring, the intentional practice of choosing who we wish to be and become; self-determination of purpose; looking within to access inner guidance; discerning what is true; self-regulation, focus and discipline; cultivating the capacity to self-evaluate and update in real time; navigating the unknown with joy, gratitude and trust.

Together, they explore the three dimensions of self-leadership (1) leading in the world, (2) leading within, (3) leading through a greater purpose. Self-leadership, expressed through this three-fold framework, may play a pivotal role in the conscious emergence of a new epoch - especially when we transcend personal ambition in service of a greater vision or mission. In doing so, we become purposeful conduits for the new civilization that seeks to be born, facilitating it to take shape through a collective agency of sovereign, responsive, self-leaders.

Threefold self-leadership:

• Leading in the world
• Leading within
• Leading through a greater purpose

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“In the old epoch, in the gold epoch, we looked at great leaders, Alexander the Great, the Napoleons; typically, they were men, not only men, there were a few larger than life women as well. But largely, the case was that they were men, and they made their mark on history in the gold epoch. But we are guided by the intuition that the pivot calls us to recognize that self-leadership is the summons, the call of this time.” (Aviv)

“Mostly in the world it's a subliminal process. It's happening, but people are not aware of it, except they're saying, oh, something's changed. This changed here, this changed here, this changed there, and they see it to be, we'll get back to normal soon. This myth of normal. But this is trying to go from subliminal and actually being aware that something much bigger is taking place, that there's an actual change of epoch on the move, to go from it being subliminal to conscious liminal, actually being conscious in the space in between.” (David)

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Threefold Leadership in this Epochal Moment, Part 1

If you search the internet, you're instantly confronted with a vast reservoir of knowledge — academic, scientific, artificial (AI-generated), and even channeled sources. Amid this teeming sea of information, how do you verify what is real and what is true?

Aviv, Karen and Kyriaki delve into this verification problem by tracing the evolution of knowledge and how it has shaped our modern landscape. They examine seven forms of knowing as a prelude to an integrated search for truth enabled by the natural verification systems of life. This leads to an intriguing proposition, that despite the shadow of the scientific method being the denial of the subjective or inner realms, it represents the search for an objective third-person perspective. This shift could herald a transformative leap into fourth- and fifth-person perspectives; the holding of multiple perspectives while integrating polarities, conflicting feelings and experiences. Such a multi-perspectival capacity may well be the catalyst for the Universalis Human to come online in an entirely new way.

Key insights:

• The search for truth and the verification problem inside of the excess of knowledge today
• The rigor of the scientific method and the shadow element of the great separation it brought
• The seven kinds of knowing; empirical, rational, theoretical, experiential, intuitive, procedural, and relational
• The integrated search for truth and knowledge enabled by the natural verification system of life
• The significance of the third person perspective and objective knowledge in scientific inquiry
• The seeding of the third person perspective as a herald to fourth- and fifth-person perspectival capacities as the new Universalis human comes online

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“There is a part of me that is totally impatient, like I want everything to happen this second. And there is a part of me that is patient beyond this lifetime, because I deeply understand that there are certain processes that will take a very, very long time; they will take centuries. So, I am able to integrate those conflicting feelings, sentiments, and experiences. And when I do so, I give rise, I am birthing the Universalis capacity.” (Aviv)

“That leads me to suggest that as we give rise to the symphonic orchestration of multiple lives and dimensions in our interiority, not just interiority in the singular sense, but interiority in between us, when we do so, we are literally providing the universe the space in which the universe is awakened to its cosmic symphony and to its interior dimensions, through us, with us. So it's both poetically beautiful and compelling and, at the same time, far-reaching in what it tells us about the verification system of the greater universe.” (Aviv)

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How Do We Verify What is True and Real? – The Universalis Project #18

As we regather for the second part of this event, Aviv Shahar offers this reflection: “One of the ways I answer the question, ‘What is it like to be in this liminal transition from an epoch that's fading to a new epoch that's emerging?’ Well, it’s like being in a playground — after I allow myself to relax to the situation. A lot of the time I don't feel relaxed. I feel I need to be something, to do something, to meet a certain need.” Sound familiar?

We have been exploring together the shift from one epoch to another, and what that means for us as individuals and as a global community: letting go of what is no longer needed (making space), finding balance and stability while relaxing into the unknown, being open to what is newly possible and upholding in ourselves what we want to nurture into the future.

It is easy to grasp these concepts intellectually without them ever hitting “home” for us personally. Far more powerful is to engage these contemplations with our Soul, our faithful guide and companion, designed to see us through these changes. What unfolds here are experimental and experiential ways of exploring these concepts so that we can feel them — literally, in the rigidity of a coiled fist compared to an open hand — and encouraged toward our individual discovery because that is the kind of playground where we learn and discover best.

The invitation here is to dive deeper, beyond the brain, into the interiority, into the emotions/heart, into the sensory responses that are activated, or inspired, by contemplation into the questions at hand. The whole of us is the playground, under the management of our Soul, for this exploration, while connecting us to ways of engaging our full system that will serve us well in the times ahead.

Discover what it is like for the Soul to facilitate the shift, From > To:

• From Rigidly Fixed > to Dynamically Evolving
• From Separated > to Connected
• From Valuing Things > to Prioritizing Relationships
• From Anchored in the Known > to Immersed in the Unknown
• From Reliance on Plans > to Trusting the Process

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“One of the ways I answer the question, what is it like to be in this liminal transition from an epoch that's fading to a new epoch that's emerging? Well, it is like being in a playground, after I allow myself to relax to the situation. A lot of the time I don't feel relaxed. I feel I need to be something, to do something to meet a certain need. And what if actually, this which is now seeking to access that which is latent in us, what if it needs us to relax into not knowing? What if it needs us to relax into playfully discovering?” (Aviv)

“One of the contemplations that emerged for me about the idea of separated and connected is that it teaches me to honor that we are separate individuals. And there is a design reason as to why life would want us each to be configured as a unique individual, and there is a design and purposeful reason behind why, along the evolutionary story, we released ourselves from tribal entity where we were homogenous, one unified self, to the discovery of the individuated self over recent centuries. And that there is a reason why this continual evolution is now nudging us to discover a new way of coming together.” (Aviv)

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Beyond the Collapse – Event Part 2: Separate Yet Connected

We all experience parts of ourselves moving in different directions at the same time. The cells in our bodies continually die as new ones are born. Throughout our lives, we release what no longer serves us and shift our attention toward new opportunities. So, we are no strangers to seeing that something is ending, fading, dying — while at the same time, something else is emerging, arriving, birthing through us.

This conversation brings to life the transition from an epoch that's fading to one that's emerging, and explores the soul's journey in placing both within a larger frame, one that recognizes three simultaneous processes: something ending, something emerging, and the liminal space in between. It is within this threshold that we can immerse ourselves in the unknown and embrace our struggles as whole human beings.

This journey invites us to expand beyond the familiar impulse to solve problems, and instead to explore options, widen our sense of what’s possible, and rewire our ways of seeing and being. The inquiry opens up vast questions, like “Where does the future come from?” — and illuminates latent potentials in humanity and higher states of consciousness. The soul, with its latent memory of the future, transcends the linearity of time in an entangled universe. It can serve as a powerful guide as the transition between epochs intensifies. To navigate these times with resilience and adaptability, we are called to both “hospice” the old epoch and “midwife” the new within ourselves and the world around us.

Strategies that help us approach this include:

• Releasing the conditioning of the old epoch, even as it resists being released
• Embracing the liminal in-between state and the opportunities it provides
• Facilitating, ripening and liberating the new epoch as it appears in us

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“The answer to the question, ‘Where does the future come from?,"’ is, well, it comes through all of us, each and every one of us, potentially. When you found a way to forgive deeply inside you, a person, or a certain situation, you have released that situation into a new future, rather than being stuck in a historic point of pain. When you come up with a new way of seeing the challenges you are facing, you are literally opening for yourself, and likely for the people around you, a future that was not available before. So, we are each, simply by the definition of being a human at this time on Earth, we are each an active agency for the future.” (Aviv)

“Can we find a way to embrace the totality of who we are as humans, and recognize that perhaps there is a way to imagine and envision this crisis point as a birthing crucible. If there is a test in it, the test in it is to live fully in the here and now, in the every moment of what it is that we encounter, whether it's a struggling moment at work, whether it's a struggling moment at home in our relationships, whether it is when we are in the meditation and the deepest prayer we choose to formulate, and refuse almost defiantly, to bypass this moment, to bypass this life.” (Aviv)

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Beyond the Collapse – Event Part 1: The Soul’s Role in Birthing a New World

The mystery of the soul has captivated humanity throughout time. In this new conversation, Aviv Shahar and Portalsfriends continue exploring The Soul’s Journey, now delving into the enigma of spontaneous healing. This live event weaves contemplations, soul dialogue, music, and visual expression. The invitation is to slow down and release the pressure to instantly agree or disagree. Instead, allow space to gently listen to the soul's subtle, quiet voice.

The soul’s knowledge is immense, largely untapped. By uplifting the meaning of “knowledge” beyond conventional learning, we begin to perceive the self and the soul as distinct yet deeply interwoven: the self as the "choice-making you," and the soul as the intelligent companion forever tethered to infinite creativity and all knowledge. Eight core soul premises serve as perceptual gateways, inviting deeper recognition of the soul’s role and subtle influence as it nudges us forward with the capacity to mediate the uncertainty of a new epoch and an unknown future.

Spontaneous healing is one such soul capacity — rare, mysterious, and historically documented. The soul already works as healer, and has the potential to access the knowledge to bridge to higher energies and intelligence that are faster than the planetary speeds of conventional healing. Can we release the pains of our yesterdays to create space for such renewal?

If we don’t trust the intelligence of the soul and the natural systems we’re part of, how can they deliver capabilities beyond the known? What mindset, energy, and connections are needed to open the gate to this higher possibility?

Significant opportunities:

• Create space to release the pressure of having to agree or disagree and open to the soul’s natural rhythm.
• Discover a wider intelligence that transcends conditioned ideas of learning.
• Recognize the agency of the self and how the soul supports our alignment with higher intelligence to help us mediate change, especially in times of great uncertainty.
• Ask: What is spontaneous healing? What blocks it? What inner gateways open it?

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“The Soul reads the subtle, energetic properties of everything. So every sound, every color, every object, every shape, every internal feeling, every registration of the environment, all of those, each and every one of those dimensions and elements, they carry knowledge. Every word carries knowledge, but it's not just a word; it's the intonation, it's the sound. So when we say the Soul is intimately connected with all the knowledge that exists on the planet, we are inferring the full range is available by potential for the Soul.” (Aviv)

“What does it feel like when you embrace this idea that there is a part of you, an intelligence loom within you, an intelligence loom that accompanies you all the days of your life, including when you are asleep, never leaves you without, affords you all that you know to do, supports you every moment of your life, and that it has all that you may need to encounter the challenges in front of you?” (Aviv)

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Spontaneous Healing – Event Part 2: The Soul’s Journey In Between Epochs

How can we bring the whole human intelligence to strengthen and steady us as we navigate an epochal shift?

In this engaging workshop, through inquiry and ground-breaking insights, Aviv Shahar and a group of international friends explore the story of the soul alongside the unfolding story of the evolving epoch. Movement, music, painting and drawing are shared as live, experimental methodologies to liberate our unique inner capacities.

Beginning with a summary of Chapters 1–6 of Portals into the Soul, the workshop opens the challenging invitation to attune to the greater versatility of one’s soul. At its core, the premise is a calling to the human family to re-engage the soul as a vital force in our time.

Rather than offering answers, the invitation is to live into the inquiry. Within each of us, one part may be dying while another is being born anew. Participants' contributions illuminate this inner panorama, revealing that what we see happening in the world is also stirring within us.

As we come to see that the energy crisis is not only planetary but also a concern of the soul — expressed in inner fragmentation, fatigue, and the depletion of human faculties — the search for greater intactness and soul range becomes a path to renewed vitality. This awakening can unlock inner resources to meet the demands of our time.

In the face of a global leadership breakdown, the soul’s journey calls us to step into a deeper initiation, toward becoming fully self-arising, self-responsible, and self-directing beings. True self-leadership emerges as essential for personal growth and for navigating transformative times.

• How do we engage in three essential tasks at once: release the conditioning of the old epoch and its operating system, embrace the liminal transition into the unknown, and facilitate liberation in the emerging epoch?
• The meta-crisis is not merely a problem to solve, but an expression and symptom of an epochal transition.
• What triggers chronic conflict in humans and what could enable deep settlement, peace, and well-being?
• How do we discover and cultivate the inner technologies that support process leadership? What we need now are process catalysts and facilitators of emergence.
• We are tenderly hospice-ing a dying epoch and caringly midwifing the birth of a new one — not only in the world around us, but within ourselves. This sensibility is arising in many people who feel called to this threshold.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“Any crisis point you can describe, and look at, on the world stage, has an interior dimension that mirrors it, that we can frame by way of an inquiry that is a Soul concern. So we'll abide with that for a bit, and there again, the inquiry will be, okay, what is it that we are observing that we can do, individually and collectively, to help facilitate the Soul to be more fully resilient, and all of us as people, wherever we find ourselves?” (Aviv)

“Part of the awareness in this is that we cannot make the transition from one epoch to the next just with our heads, just with concepts. We actually need the whole human person, the full inner orchestra, the inner lives, all the faculties, all the capabilities, all the talents, all the intelligence lines to participate in the discovery.” (Aviv)

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Navigating the Shift – Event Part 1: The Soul’s Journey In Between Epochs

“How do you know what you know?” This provocative question sets the stage for an illuminating live conversation. Opening pathways to expanded ways of knowing is a profound liberation — especially in a time marked by increasing polarization. The exploration of ten distinct types of knowledge runs throughout this latest dialogue in the Universalis series.

In this episode, Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney, and Kyriaki Nikandrou explore the transformative shifts that catalyze the emergence of a "Universalis human." These shifts guide us beyond rigid fixations and controlling tendencies rooted in what we think we know, steering us instead toward authentic curiosity and inquiry into the unknown. Through a whole-person contemplative exploration, attuned to the natural flow of life, we discover how each of us can uniquely serve the universe.

Insights developed and explored include:

• To dance with the universe and be an agency for life is the invitation at the heart of this enlightening conversation.
• The 10 Dimensions of Knowledge introduce pathways where integrated approaches expand and elevate our capacity to know. By weaving together the experienced, the sensed, and the intuited, we liberate our multiple inner lives — and in doing so unlock and uplift what we can connect with and understand.
• Through a potent inquiry integrating thinking and feeling, this brief explores new ways of knowing — not by replacing our senses, feelings or emotions, but by introducing frameworks of reference about how the universe works, ready to guide and accompany us on our journey inward.
• With domain residency, access to knowledge becomes almost instant as the domain knows itself through you. You can then move with ease through different life domains (such as family or profession) and unlock broader networks of human possibility.
• The emerging inquiry is: How fully can we be present in ourselves in order to access these pathways and liberate whole‑person, integrated knowing?

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“And then the inquiry arose from an even more foundational place, which is, how do you integrate what you think you know, by way of reference that you have learned, and the feeling experience? How do you bring these two interior universes into a convergent coherence where thinking and feeling work together rather than fight each other?” (Aviv)

“And what I suggested here is that there is a point where the attunement to a domain, and being centered in the first-principle nature of the domain, you become the embodiment of the essence of that domain. It's another way of describing it, a whole other level of mastery, process knowledge, sentiment knowledge, and domain knowledge, now you became the embodiment of that arena or that space, or that artistry or that discipline that you demonstrate.” (Aviv)

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The Universalis Project #17 – 10 Dimensions of Knowing