Q & A with Alphamama

Alphamama Q & A

Congratulations on your new single Stranger in Asia which you will debut at The Beresford in Surry Hills on February 9^th. Is the song a reflection of your feminine awakening and the recalling and celebrating of your sacred and divine origins?

Yeah for sure, it’s a reflection of my own but also of what I’ve observed is happening in the world all over. More and more women are stepping into their power and more men are becoming aware of their own feminine power. Whatever that may look or feel like for them. It’s reflected in politics, culture and religion. We are all starting to remember who we are! We’ve suppressed so many parts of ourselves for so long and now it’s all coming up to the surface. The ugly and the beautiful.

Your album, Truths, Trips & Revelations illustrates the diversity in your sound which includes pop, rock, soul, funk, reggae, R & B, hip hop and the spoken word. Categorising musicians into particular genres could be seen as restrictive. Certainly, your sound combines multiple musical influences which could be defined as genre-less. What is your view on the categorisation of musicians into distinct genres?

It serves a purpose for sure. Even though it can be really frustrating. When I apply for a festival or upload tracks to soundcloud I don’t see my genre. There’s no “goddess gangsta sexy healer soul artivism” box to tick. I used to be hell bent on not being put in a box, didn’t want anyone to categorise me or label me cause I thought I was being “unique” but nowadays, I understand that that’s how we relate to each other. In order for us to understand something, we need to compare it to other things we understand so therefore it’s helpful to have genres and categories and labels. That said though, I don’t let that dictate my sound or my direction. I have always just ran with what I liked and what moved me and will continue to do so. I think people are intelligent and aware enough to be versatile in their tastes and know that it doesn’t define them. At the same time, if it helps people understand me by reading that I’m a bit like Alicia Keys because I play the piano and like soul music, so be it.

In your treatise on genres, you share with us the view that musicians and artists want to be considered “unique”, “different”, “out of the box”. You observe that such differentiations don’t serve us: That we possess more similarities than differences, which include musicians and artists, and that what would benefit us all a great deal more is a search for our connectedness. Why do you believe such connectedness with each other is so important?

I don’t know if it’s true that there are more similarities than differences. Maybe there’s equal amounts, I don’t know. But I do believe that life is easier when you’re not being so contrary and stubbornly different and antagonistic. As an artist, you’re constantly putting yourself out there for people to connect with your music, to connect with that part of you. When you look for ways to connect instead of shutting yourself off, you tend to be happier. I think that music, art, drugs, friendship, relationships are all ways in which we try to access that feeling of connection and closeness to something and I do think that it’s what we all want deep down. So I guess that’s why so much of my values are centred around sharing, community and the journey of consciousness awakening.

Your poem, Enough, speaks powerfully and gracefully about the yearning of so many women who wait for a man to, not only mate with, but who will fill them up and stem the tide of loneliness. Why do you think so many women believe a man will “complete” them?

Because Disney. Because of our mother’s stories. Because of the masculine dominant politics and religious experiences we’ve all had. Because God, the supreme being, is personified as a MAN. The yearning and the longing itself is natural I feel. It’s just another amazing human emotional experience but we are always externalising that fulfillment through another.. a soulmate. You are your own soul, mate. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed your acoustic Drake medley. Is Drake an artist you would especially like to work with and are there other artists you would love to collaborate with (and why?)

Sure, my perception of Drake is that he’s quite good at feeling and expressing his emotions and I love that. Musically it would be fun but more than anything, I would like to work with artists on a spiritual level. I’d love to do some emotional clearing work with them, take them through The Spiral, raise their consciousness levels. Get to the heart of their pain spots and help them let go of their emotional baggage.

In your Song Ass in the Front, you sing “She don’t care about her reputation, her p*ssy’s on high rotation … send in the troops and the paparazzi … Kanye and Kim will distract us for free … Billions made while millions bleed, the one percent feed”. I interpret the song as an expose on the poverty endured worldwide in developing nations while we in the Western world ignore the poverty and obsess over the acquisition of money, fame and hooking up with the “beautiful people”. Have I understood the themes at all?

Yeah along those lines.. Except that the first verse is about the double standards of how we as a society shame women for using their sexuality and yet women’s sexuality is so powerful it’s used as one of the biggest, most effective distraction tools. There is so much loathing, shame and fear around sexuality that we are totally fixated on it. While the world obsesses about celebrity and sex, war and genocide happens daily and we’re numb to it.

You discuss the Goddess Kali, a Hindu Goddess that “brings the death of the ego as the illusory self-centred view of reality.” How has the Goddess Kali inspired you?

She’s an archetype I’ve been exploring a lot lately. I feel a lot of people around the world are awakening to their own inner Kali. That’s why we’re seeing these huge uprisings of women coming into full power. For me, she has allowed me to embrace my fullness. Relinquish the fear of losing my sanity, the fear of destruction, the fear of being consumed by the fire of purification. When you see things as a ‘GOD’, you don’t really get precious about shit. Burn it down, blow it up, fuck it to death. Who cares? Ya know what I mean?

You talk about “ferocious vulnerability” which could be considered, in simplistic human terms, as a contradiction. Can you share your position on this seeming incongruity?

I see vulnerability as a kind of honesty with your feelings. It’s knowing that you could be hurt because you’re so open. A raw tenderness that others could penetrate you and affect you. In our society, our vulnerability is so often used against us. Especially on social media. If you share an opinion, a feeling or a thought that someone doesn’t like, they will bully you, troll you, smash you and berate you. It makes people not want to share vulnerably anymore because they’re scared of being hurt. They hide themselves from others and become disconnected. So many people cannot communicate because they’ve been attacked for doing so. So for me, being ferocious with my vulnerability means that I refuse to hide away, wear masks and dilute my viewpoints or my sharing just because someone may choose to try and hurt me for what I think or say. It’s a ferocious attempt at staying authentic and honest.

Insincerity and inauthenticity are themes that you explore through your lyrics and poetry. Why do you believe that some people are, arguably, afraid to be real?

It’s exactly what I just mentioned. It’s cultural conditioning and it’s often really insidious. How many times have we been made to feel wrong, stupid, guilty, ashamed for just expressing our feelings or our thoughts? Especially in this day and age, we are so quick to judge people and categorise them because they say one thing about one politician. The lefties are often the worst at this. There’s often to room for open discussion and how does anyone feel safe to express their authentic selves? We so often only communicate with people who agree with us or when we want to change someone’s mind. Authenticity isn’t always ‘nice’ and ‘right’ and ‘harmonious’. That’s what I love about Kali. She’s wild but she’s honest. When we realise that we don’t have to fight each other to be ‘right’, that actually we all grow more when we can see our own reflection in the things we hate most in another, that’s the doorway to self awareness and self actualisation.

You discuss the importance of loving ourselves. What has been your journey towards loving yourself and do you believe we are each works in progress?

Yeah I think it’s a pretty big key in terms of moving toward a healthy world. I see every problem in politics and in the world as an outer reflection of the disharmony within. This realisation came through my relationships. I realised that so many problems that arise in relationships disappear when you have the ability to love and connect with yourself. When you’re self sustainable in your ability to maintain your own well-being, happiness, love and acceptance, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to partner with people. If you knew me a few years ago the changes are pretty radical. I was manic depressive, suicidal, very self-destructive, total relationship addict, hugely insecure. I’ve done a whole bunch of work to discover who I am and to let go of what I’m not. I went and learned a bunch of tools to clear abuse trauma, conditioning, sabotage patterns and unconscious beliefs and now it’s just part of my daily life. My self love is just a non-negotiable now as my base line. Even if I’m not 100% I never stop loving myself and committing to myself.

You facilitate workshops on learning to love ourselves, called the Self Love Challenge. Without divulging all the material and messages you share with your group participants, can you provide a snapshot of your teachings and what your participants learn about such a crucial component in becoming the best versions of ourselves that we can be?

What I’m offering at the moment is a clearing session where we identify any emotional baggage that ‘s in the way and then commit to a 14 day journey that integrates new ways of loving yourself. Some things are simple like gazing into your own eyes everyday for 5 minutes but the effects are deep and transformative. Some things are fun like building an altar to your divinity and some are more challenging like bringing your awareness to past pain and accepting the times you’ve hurt yourself. People often think that love is a feeling and while it can definitely be felt, I see love as being multi-dimensional in its expression. For me, it’s intention and deciding. I decide to love myself and I cultivate that feeling. I cultivate my loving thoughts and I cultivate my connection and awareness of love by making a clear, committed decision.
A close confidant of mine advised that “if you can’t change the place you inhabit in your world, change worlds”. Do you agree that such a “physical” change (of address) can help us live our best lives or are you of the view that real change can only occur if we work from the “inside, out”, spiritually speaking?

Yeah. Totally, if you have the choice to change where you are in the world and you think it’ll make you happier do it. But remember, you take yourself with you wherever you go. This only works if the problems are external but if your problems are within, then you gotta address them. When I did some travelling a couple of years ago, I realised how much of my identity was held together by people’s opinions of me and when I was away from those people, I could be whoever I wanted. I view life as a game, if you really hate the game you’re playing, choose another one. New people, new purpose, new rules, new place. Have fun with it.

Following on from the previous question, what is your position on psychological, as opposed to metaphysical, guidance and instruction?

I use a few different models to understand life, one is the 5 bodies system. I like this as it poses that we are physical, emotional, energetic, mental and spiritual beings and that all of the 5 bodies need attention to be in balance. Some people are really emotional and they let their emotions run the show, some are super meta and not even really in their bodies and some have to cognitively understand things and can’t really feel a lot of physical sensation. When I work with people, the first thing I do is assess where they’re strongest and where they’re weakest and I aim to bring strengthen all 5 bodies. So in saying that, psychology is helpful, so is the gym, so is emotional clearing, so is vipassana and so is prayer depending on what we need.

You talk about Mirror Theory which posits that when we criticise a perceived character flaw in another person, it triggers recognition, in ourselves, and perhaps at an unconscious level, that we possess that character flaw. Have I conceptualised Mirror Theory correctly and, if so, what can we learn from it?

Yeah. It’s saying very basically that whatever you see in another exists in you also. At least the potential of it does. So we tend to be drawn to people who are like us in some way, possess the qualities we love in ourselves but sometimes we suppress parts of ourselves and when it shows up in another we feel triggered. Perfectly fitting example for right now is how many people feel about Donald Trump. If we’re all willing to take a good look at ourselves, we would see that he displays characteristics and traits that we have too. Our anger or hatred is directed at a person but really it’s what we see in them that we hate because we haven’t accepted that in ourselves. It’s especially obvious when people vehemently “hate” him for the way he ‘hates’ others. I’ve learned heaps about myself by studying what parts of Donald Trump trigger me. I love how he seems to not give a shit about the bad press he gets. I’m triggered by his arrogance and my perception of what he believes and thinks about the world. But anything that I see in him, I can find in myself and clear any resistance I have to it.

The question of you being paid for your services has arisen for you of late. As you say, your wisdom and guidance is valuable and not just in a spiritual growth sense. How have you reconciled society’s ill-conceived norm that teachers of an esoteric nature ought to work voluntarily and teachers that work in educational settings deserve to be paid?

This is something I have worked on and continue to do so. By understanding the nature of money, currency, energy flows, self worth and clearing any resistance or ‘charge’ around those concepts, it makes it way easier for me to charge money. It’s the same for artists. So many creatives have a hard time making money because of self worth issues or because they believe their art is too sacred to have a monetary value, or they’re scared shitless of money or power. I see my work as having a greater purpose and one of those purposes is to help change the value system of society as well as raise the consciousness of the planet. As consciousness rises, we are able to value less dense forms of communication and we will see our communication modes changing from guns and money to music and telepathy.

Can you clarify what are clearing sessions and what are spiral sessions?

The type of clearing work I do is a combination of modalities borrowed from kinesiology, traditional chinese medicine, tantric principles and other modalities that was put together by Dane Tomas (www.clearyourshit.com). Mixed with my own transmissions, intuition and soul gifts, I offer coaching, mentoring and clearing sessions to help people move through their own bullshit and get the things they want whether it’s healing from trauma or financial success. It allows us to find the ‘charge’, ‘emotion’ or ‘resistance’ and clear it. The Spiral is an awesome process of clearing emotional baggage and conditioning that we’re carrying around unconsciously. I went through The Spiral in 2015 and had huge life shifts from it. It goes through 7 levels of each chakra and it frees us of limiting beliefs, trauma, reactive patterns and other stuff that holds us back. It is a new process created by an Australian guy, Dane Tomas and there are less than 60 people currently trained to do this work. There are many ways to raise consciousness and clear yourself from pain and unconsciousness but out of the many things I’ve tried, this method is pretty damned effective and powerful.

When you referred to the proposition, often incorrectly ascribed to Ghandi, that we “be the change you want to see in the world”, what is your conception of this idea? Is it simply treating all people we interact with, with kindness and compassion, or is it more complex than that?

For me it’s mirror theory again. The way you see the world has a LOT to do with your internal world. The best way to influence others is to show the positive benefits of your behaviour, thinking or beliefs, to model the behaviour you believe to be ethical and good. If we wanna get really weird, you could even say that all we have is our perception. Everything outside of us only exists for us because we sense it, see it, experience it and we get agreement from others. But what if it’s all just an illusion and we’re just creating this hologram in our minds? If so, then the world will only change when you change what you’re creating in your mind. You see this all the time, people who hold a particular belief or viewpoint will keep creating situations to affirm that belief.

You talk about “body shaming” and the adverse impact such shaming has on people. How can we start to combat this pressure to always look good and, hopefully, commence a conversation about body dysmorphic disordered perceptions that we are developing about ourselves?

I think it’s a symptom of disconnection again. That’s why I advocate self love and acceptance. That’s why I do clearing work. That’s why I try to model a healthy human who doesn’t carry a whole lot of body shame and openly talk about my body, my sexuality, my insecurities and whatever else is going on for me. There is so much suppression of our sexuality and our bodies and it manifests in abuse, rape, pedophilia, eating disorders, slut shaming, impotence and I could go on and on. It’s very easy to blame the magazines for the higher rates of body dysmorphia but it’s so much bigger than that.They’re just feeding us what we buy and what we we respond to. It is natural for humans to be attracted to aesthetics and beauty and even though our concept of beauty changes vastly from person to person, I personally don’t have any issues with photoshop and the likes because I think we’re all smart enough to know that it’s photoshopped and it’s not REAL. It’s not supposed to be real. What I do have an issue with is the amount of shame we’re all carrying around passed down from generation to generation and I am working really hard to let go of any shame about my body, or anyone else’s body for that matter. My own issues stemmed from sexual abuse and trauma, religious and cultural dogma and only after that compounded by magazines and media. Since doing the work I’m doing I’ve discovered just how common sexual abuse is and how it’s internalised and suppressed and turns up in all sorts of relationship problems with self and others. It’s a work in progress but I like where we’re heading.

I would now like to ask you the questions used by James Lipton on Inside The Actors Studio, on behalf of the French journalist Bernard Pivot:

What is your favourite word?

FUCK

What is your least favourite word?

JEALOUSY

What turns you on?

Playing at 100% and Presence. Deep listening and appreciation. Aesthetics and Worshipping the divine in one another

What turns you off?

Inauthenticity. Unconsciousness. Hiding.

What is your favourite swear word?

CUNT after FUCK

What sound or noise do you love?