Life as Feedback: How Desire and Relationship Reveal the Self

This podcast series explores a game-changing understanding of the human mind that operates ''Before Psychology'' - the Secret Source' that exponentially increases the peace, performance, and potential for any individual or organisation.

🧭 Episode Summary:

In this expansive and exploratory conversation, Piers joins Dr Amy Johnson on the Changeable Podcast show for a deep dive into the lived reality of the Quality of Mind and Before Psychology understanding. Showing how through every day life relationships, desires, discomforts, and even minor eye-roll moments—functions as a mirror showing us where self identity is still subtly hiding.

The episode explores how our desires and reactions are not random or personal but invitations to notice where we are still believing in a separate self. 

• Life is a Mirror: Everything—especially your desires, discomforts, and relationships—acts as a mirror showing where identity is still subtly hiding.

• Desire is Not the Problem: Desire becomes a compass. Clean wants flow naturally; unclean ones reveal where the self is trying to prop itself up.

• Feeling vs Thinking: Much of what we call “feeling” is actually conceptualisation. Real transformation begins when we stop analysing and start sensing.

• Real but Never True: All experience is real but not objectively true. When seen from this lens, experience becomes less personal and more revealing.

• Subtlety is the New Frontier: As our aperture widens, we become more attuned to the micro-resistances and subtle patterns where identity still hides.

• There Is No Separate Self: The shift isn’t in fixing yourself—it’s in seeing that what you think you are never existed in the way it seemed.

• Practical Non-Duality: These insights aren’t just philosophical—they profoundly shift parenting, working, relating, and even cooking dinner.

• The System Learns Naturally: You don’t have to figure this out. When you're no longer distracted, the system shows you exactly what you need to see.

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🔎 For Listeners Who:

• Sense there's more to life but are tired of trying to fix themselves to find it
• Feel stuck in loops of self-improvement or subtle identity work
• Want to bring more freedom, insight and presence to work, leadership, parenting, or any aspect of daily life
• Are curious about non-duality and want to explore it in grounded, relatable ways
• Feel stuck in loops of self-improvement or subtle identity work
• Want to bring more freedom, insight and presence to parenting, work or daily life
• Are noticing the limits of conceptual thinking and are ready to live more from the raw aliveness of the present

🧭 Mentioned in the Episode:

• Silent Retreats: As a direct pointer to the parts of ourselves we habitually distract from

• The Mirror Metaphor: A recurring theme—how life reflects our inner landscape back to us

• “Clean” vs “Unclean” Desires: A practical tool for checking where we’re coming from

• Parenting Examples: Real-life stories about identity, validation, and subtle control

• Direct Inquiry: Practices like “Which ‘I’ is asking?” and “Can I find the one who is upset?”

• The ‘Isness’ of Experience: A term used to describe the raw, pre-conceptual nature of life

• The System’s Learning Extravaganza: Piers’ phrase for how insight unfolds naturally

• Telepathy Tapes Podcast: Referenced as an example of unfiltered sensing without self-identification

• Cold Showers as Practice: A visceral pointer to raw sensation vs conceptualised feeling

✉️ Connect and Learn More

• You can find out more about Amy and her work here
• Amy's most recent Book 'Just a Thought' (aka That's Just What Minds Do :) purchase and get a free chapter here 
• A summary of the Quality of Mind resources, to find out more
• TASTE THE MANGO  YouTube and Sub stack all about Direct Inquiry, Explore for yourself
• Check out our other podcast episodes; a curated list here
• Watch past clients talk about the power of Quality of Mind here
• For a more in depth looking into the Before Psychology nondual understanding behind Quality of Mind listen here  or here
• Find out more about the relevance of Quality of Mind 
• Check out our other podcast episodes, a curated list here
• Subscribe to our Quality of Mind YouTube channel for a series of 2 min videos all about Quality of Mind
• Piers Thurston regularly writes about Quality of Mind on LinkedIn and has a large collection of articles and post