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Gateway Spiritualism

Gateway Spiritualism

by Russell Cohn

Self-Improvement Spirituality

Gateway Spiritualism Origin Story

In this episode, I share the story of how Gateway Spiritualism began, the three discoveries that transformed my understanding of change, and the experiment that eventually became The Will to Change. This isn’t an invitation to adopt a new belief system. It’s an invitation to explore a different possibility through your own experience. If you’ve spent years seeking, growing, and doing the inner work, yet still find yourself searching, I hope this story resonates with you. If you’d like to continue exploring, you’re invited to join the free Gateway Spiritualism community on Substack and participate in The Will to Change experiment. I would genuinely love to hear what you discover. Here is the link to subscribe: https://rosalcojen.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1

Ep. 1 - I Thought I Had Failed Spiritually

This is where Gateway Spiritualism begins. For years, I believed that if you worked on yourself honestly… your life would eventually reflect that. And when mine didn’t — I assumed I had failed. In this first episode, I share the moment that belief started to break… and what I began to see instead. Not another way to fix yourself. But a different kind of relationship with what’s happening inside you. If something in you senses there’s more to this… you’re in the right place. To begin exploring this more directly: Start Here

Ep. 2 - How Responsibility Becomes Self-Judgment

I thought I was doing the right thing. I took responsibility for what had happened in my life. But what I didn’t see… was how quickly responsibility turns into self-judgment. And how easily you can get stuck there. To begin exploring this more directly: Start here

Ep. 3 - The Part of Me Trying to Change How I Feel

I was stuck in depression— repeating the same thoughts, the same memories, the same feelings in my body. I tried to change it… but nothing changed. That’s when I began to see something I hadn’t seen before. To begin exploring this more directly: Start here

Ep. 4 - Effort Itself

The harder I tried to change how I felt… the more I stayed in the same place. And that’s when I began to question something deeper— whether effort itself was keeping me stuck. To begin exploring this more directly: Start here

Ep. 5 - What Remains When Effort Ends

At some point, I began to see that all of my effort had something in common. Every approach I had used assumed that what I was feeling needed to be fixed, removed, or escaped. But when that effort stopped working… a different question appeared. Not “How do I change this?” but “What if I’ve been relating to this the wrong way?” This episode explores what remains when the attempt to get out of what you feel comes to an end. To begin exploring this more directly: Start here

Ep. 6 - The Presence I Missed

In this episode, something begins to shift in a way I didn’t expect. After stepping out of effort, I start to notice that the experience I’ve been trying to change… isn’t happening alone. There’s the anxiety. The patterns. The familiar weight. But there’s also something else. Not reacting. Not trying to fix anything. Just… aware. And the more I notice it, the more I begin to wonder: What if this presence is what I had been missing all along? To begin exploring this more directly: Start here

Ep. 7 — Something Real Wasn’t Named

As I began noticing a presence that didn’t come from effort… I tried to understand how it fit with everything I had learned from Joe Dispenza and Pema Chödrön. But what I was experiencing didn’t match either approach. I wasn’t trying to change anything. I wasn’t trying to accept anything. And yet… something was shifting. That’s when I started to wonder: What if the change wasn’t coming from the technique… but from something the technique was engaging — without ever naming it? To begin exploring this more directly: Start here

Ep. 8 - The First Time I Responded To It

This was the first time I didn’t try to fix myself.I noticed something else was there — a presence — and instead of changing the feeling, I engaged it.That changed everything.

Ep. 9 - When It Started Responding Back

At first, it felt like I was the one doing something new. Turning toward that presence. Engaging it. Noticing that something shifted when I did. But I still thought of it as my action. Something I was choosing. Until something changed. In this episode, I explore the moment when that experience stopped feeling one-sided—when it began to feel like something was responding back. Not as a dramatic event, but as a subtle, undeniable shift in how I felt in my body. And with that… my focus began to change. Less about fixing my circumstances. More about the emotional state I was living in.

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