Episode 3 – Non-duality: An Initial Exploration

This is The Three Petals podcast hosted by Jim Trofatter. The Three Petals is dedicated to exploring the threefold journey of spiritual awakening, where awareness, embodiment, and mutuality intertwine to create a vibrant, transformative life and represents a new paradigm for enlighten living.

In each episode, we’ll delve into what it means to truly inhabit our human experience, while opening our hearts and minds to the infinite nature of consciousness. Whether you’re completely new to this path or have been on a spiritual journey for years, The Three Petals will offer insights, practices, and compassionate guidance to help you deepen your connection with yourself, others, and the world at large. The Three Petals: Where the Infinite meets the Intimate.

Part 1: If Only It Were Real

Meet my friend, Lois. This is what she has to say about our world. “Ah, physical reality, if only it actually existed! But, unfortunately all of this, the body, the senses, the world, even this conversation, is just an appearance in the vast, formless awareness that I truly am. Eating, walking, talking, sure, these things seem to happen, but there’s no ‘I’ actually doing them. The body? Just a fleeting pattern of sensations arising and dissolving in infinite consciousness. Pain? Pleasure? Just concepts floating through the great void of non-duality. Even the thought that I’m experiencing physical reality is itself merely an appearance within awareness. Nothing is happening. There is no one here. And yet, mysteriously, my coffee gets sipped.

So when people ask her how she experiences physical reality, she just smiles, because she knows the great cosmic joke: there is no physical reality. There’s only this, pure, boundless, unnamable awareness, pretending to be a person standing in line at the grocery store, waiting to buy avocados. But are they real? Is the cashier real? Is the need to pay real? Who knows? The dream unfolds, transactions are made, but no one is actually doing anything. And then, suddenly ‘Would you like a receipt?’ and the illusion of choice appears! “Ha! Beautiful. Just more waves rippling in the ocean of nothingness.”

Hello and welcome to The Three Petals, a podcast dedicated to exploring the synergy of three essential aspects of spiritual awakening: awareness, embodiment, and relationality. I’m your host Jim Trofatter and I’m glad you could join me today. In today’s episode we’re going to focus on the foundational aspect of non-duality. Non-duality might sound abstract or even mysterious, but it points to a truth that is deeply practical and profoundly life-changing. As with all things, our approach today will blend spiritual understandings with lived experience, inspired in part by the beautiful work of Trillium Awakening. Let’s start by unpacking what non-duality is, and what it isn’t is what Lois is experiencing.

Part 2: What Is Non-duality?

At its core, non-duality simply means not two. It is the recognition that the apparent separation between “self” and “other,” “subject” and “object,”, “me” and “you” is an illusion. Though we live as though we are distinct individuals navigating an external world, deeper inquiry reveals that these divisions are conceptual rather than fundamental. The sense of being an isolated, autonomous “me” separate from everything else is a learned perception, one that arises from language, conditioning, and habitual patterns of thought. But before all of this conditioning, there was something else, an original state of unity, a seamless field of being where no such distinctions existed.

Consider the earliest moments of existence. We are conceived in the womb, cradled in a warm, fluid environment where no boundary separates us from the mother’s body. Her nourishment is our nourishment, her breath sustains us, her heartbeat is the rhythm of our world. There is no sense of “me” or “other,” only a deep, instinctual merging, in essence, a state of oneness. If we were fully conscious of this experience, we might describe it as blissful, a kind of natural nirvana, where existence is effortless and undivided. There is no grasping, no resisting, no sense of lacking anything. It is a primal non-dual state, the closest thing to pure being before the mind forms distinctions. It is us, floating in the ocean of the womb completely contained within in it and arising from it.

Then, birth happens, and with it, the first great divide. We emerge into a world of bright lights, unfamiliar air, and the sudden loss of that seamless unity. Instinctively, we cry out, sensing the rupture, the separation from what once felt whole. It’s so overwhelming. From this moment forward, we begin the process of learning duality, me versus you, self versus world, good versus bad, inside versus outside. Language reinforces these divisions, as does culture, family, and personal experience. The mind becomes a filter, categorizing and dividing reality into neatly labeled pieces. These categories help us make sense of life, but they remove us from the direct experience of reality. I am here and the object is there and therefore separate from me. And this even pertains to me, these are my hands, this is my body, even this is my mind, objects viewed from some subjective somewhere else. But the labels aren’t the ultimate truth. The deeper truth of non-duality remains hidden beneath the surface, quietly calling us back to the recognition that the separation we take for granted is, at its root, an illusion.

Non-duality invites us to go beyond these mental divisions and discover that everything is interconnected and interdependent. It’s the recognition that the same awareness looking out through your eyes is the awareness animating all of existence. There’s no ultimate separation between you and the world, between the divine and the mundane. This realization is often called “awakening” or “realization,” and it can radically transform how you experience life.

Part 3: Consciousness and Non-duality

Where does Consciousness fall into all of this? Consciousness is the great mystery at the heart of existence, the thing, that’s not a thing, that allows us to experience, perceive, and be aware of anything at all. Consciousness is the fundamental ground of all experience, the knowing, aware presence in which everything appears. It is not something we have, but something we are. At this moment, you are aware of hearing these words. The awareness itself is consciousness. It is the constant backdrop to all thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions, yet it remains untouched by any of them. Without consciousness, there would be no perception of the world, no self-reflection, no ability to experience life. Scientists and philosophers have debated its origins for centuries, “Is it a byproduct of the brain, an epiphenomenon?” or “Is it something more fundamental, something that exists prior to and independent of the body?” While materialist perspectives argue that consciousness arises from neural activity, many spiritual and philosophical traditions suggest that consciousness is not produced by the brain but is the very fabric of reality itself.

Let me give you a taste to how consciousness is described across traditions. If we were to read all the esoteric literature on consciousness one would run across a cornucopia of flowery and mind-boggling language to describe it. Consciousness is the primordial ground of being, the self-luminous awareness in which all phenomena arise and dissolve. It is the unmanifest substratum, the pure witnessing presence, the ever-present, non-dual essence that remains untouched by time, thought, or form. It is often referred to as the Absolute, Brahman, the causeless source from which all manifestation emerges, the emptiness that is full, the silent, formless foundation beneath all appearances. It is the undivided, self-aware reality beyond mind and matter, the pristine, self-knowing clarity that is always already present. In mystical traditions, it is the I AM that I AM, the uncreated light, the pure awareness prior to perception. It is neither subject nor object but the infinite, indivisible field in which both arise. It is the unborn, the unconditioned, the ever-present suchness, that which is beyond all dualities, yet expressing as all dualities, both emptiness and form, stillness and movement, silence and song, the One appearing as the many. The list goes on and on. These are attempts to name the nameless, to communicate the uncommunicable.

Non-duality, at its core, is the recognition that consciousness is not separate from what it perceives. In our ordinary way of experiencing life, we assume a fundamental division: there is "me," the observer, and then there is "everything else", the world, other people, thoughts, emotions, sensations. But non-dual realization dissolves this illusion of separation, revealing that consciousness is not contained within a limited personal identity, but is, in fact, one, seamless, boundless field of being. There is no inside or outside, everything arises within and as consciousness, and consciousness itself is not something we have, but something we are.

As mentioned, the mind constantly labels, categorizes, and divides reality into opposites. But non-duality points to a reality beyond these mental constructs, one that is immediate, direct, and ever-present. It is not something to be attained or achieved, but something that has always been the case, hidden in plain sight. Imagine the ocean forgetting that it is water because it is too focused on the waves, this is how the mind obscures the recognition of non-dual reality. We become fixated on the appearances, the content of experience, while overlooking the formless presence in which all experience arises. If you want to experience this just look at a tree with its leaves, but look at the space between the leaves, not the leaves. It’s not something our minds want to do. They want to look at the leaves, the tree. But the space is what gives the tree and the leaves a place to define themselves.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of non-duality is that it cannot be grasped intellectually. The very mind that seeks to understand it is the same mind that maintains the illusion of separation. Non-duality is not a theory or a belief system, it is a direct experience, a shift in perception where one sees reality as it truly is: whole, undivided, infinite. And yet, even within this realization, the world of duality continues to appear. The paradox of non-duality is that it does not negate duality but includes it. We still experience contrast, hot and cold, pleasure and pain, self and other, but these are now seen as expressions of one seamless reality, much like waves rising and falling within the same vast ocean. In this way, non-duality does not remove us from life, it brings us deeper into it, revealing that the essence of everything we seek has been here all along.

Part 4: Common Misunderstandings

A common misunderstanding about non-duality is that it requires dissolving all aspects of individuality, that awakening means becoming an impersonal void, stripped of personality, preferences, or uniqueness. But non-duality doesn’t negate individuality; it integrates it. You remain distinctly you, with your particular way of seeing the world, your quirks, your gifts, but your sense of identity expands beyond the limited self. Rather than seeing yourself as a small, separate entity struggling against life, you recognize that your individuality is an expression of the greater whole. Like a wave in the ocean, you are both a unique form and inseparable from the vastness around you. This realization doesn’t make life bland or meaningless; rather, it enriches your experience, allowing you to engage with the world from a place of deep connection rather than isolation.

Another misunderstanding is the idea that non-duality promotes detachment from life, as though awakening means no longer caring about anything. Some imagine that realizing oneness would make human experiences, love, loss, joy, creativity, feel irrelevant or empty. But true non-duality is the opposite of escapism; it invites you to be fully engaged with life, to experience every moment with greater depth and presence. Instead of withdrawing into a distant, transcendent state where nothing matters, you recognize that everything matters, because everything is you. Pain, love, sorrow, laughter, they are all aspects of the same seamless reality. Non-duality doesn’t remove you from the world; it immerses you in it more fully, but with a profound sense of freedom and openness, free from the constant struggle to protect or defend a separate sense of self.

For some, non-duality can seem like an abstract philosophical idea, something to be debated or understood intellectually. But non-duality isn’t just a clever concept; it’s a direct, lived experience. It’s not something you merely believe; it’s something you feel in your body, your heart, and your whole being. This realization often comes not through study, but through deep presence, moments where the mind quiets, and a vast, open awareness is simply there, undeniably. It might arise in meditation, during a walk in nature, or even in an ordinary moment when the sense of separateness suddenly dissolves. This shift is not just about thinking differently; it’s about experiencing reality in a completely new way. And once that experience occurs, it changes everything, not by giving you a new philosophy to follow, but by revealing a truth that has always been present, waiting to be noticed.

In Trillium Awakening, there’s a strong emphasis on embodied non-duality, embodied consciousness. This means that awakening isn’t just a lofty idea, it’s something you live, breathe, and embody in your relationships, your work, and your daily life.

Part 5: Spiritual Bypassing

Spiritual bypassing, a term first coined by psychologist John Welwood, refers to the tendency to use spiritual beliefs and practices to avoid dealing with unresolved psychological wounds, personal accountability, or difficult emotions. Within the non-dual community, spiritual bypassing often takes on a unique form: the misuse of non-dual teachings to deny, dismiss, or suppress the human experience, particularly the pain and complexity of personal and relational life.

One of the most common forms of spiritual bypassing in non-duality is the "there is no self" dismissal, where any emotional suffering, trauma, or personal challenge is brushed aside with statements like "Who is suffering?" or "There is no one here to be hurt." While it’s true that, at the deepest level, non-dual realization reveals the illusory nature of a separate self, simply intellectually adopting this perspective without integrating it fully can lead to emotional repression and avoidance. People struggling with real-world issues, such as grief, trauma, or deep-seated insecurities, may feel invalidated by such responses, reinforcing a sense of alienation rather than healing.

Another form of bypassing arises when non-dual teachings are used to justify passivity or disengagement from life. Some practitioners, after experiencing a glimpse of non-dual awareness, may come to believe that nothing ultimately matters, that relationships, personal responsibilities, or even moral considerations are meaningless in the face of absolute oneness. This can lead to detachment, neglecting practical or ethical aspects of life under the guise of being "beyond" human concerns. In extreme cases, it fosters spiritual nihilism, where people use non-dual insights to justify inaction, indifference, or a refusal to engage with the suffering of others.

True non-dual realization does not reject the relative, dualistic world, it embraces it fully. Awakening is not about escaping emotions but allowing them to be seen, felt, and integrated without resistance. It is not about dismissing relationships but deepening our capacity for connection by seeing others as expressions of the same infinite awareness we are. A mature, embodied non-dual realization holds both perspectives at once: the recognition of boundless, undivided reality and the acknowledgment that, within this dreamlike play of existence, love, compassion, and responsibility still matter deeply.

Ultimately, the antidote to spiritual bypassing in the non-dual community is embodied awakening, bringing non-dual awareness into the messiness of life rather than using it as a shield against it. True realization does not exclude our humanness; it includes it, embraces it, and transforms it. Non-duality, at its fullest, is not a retreat from life, it is a full and fearless participation in it.

Part 6: How Non-duality Feels

Imagine for a moment that you’re standing by the ocean. The rhythmic crashing of the waves echoes through your body, the scent of salt fills your lungs, and the cool breeze dances across your skin. You watch as the tide moves in and out, ceaseless and effortless, and for a moment, something shifts. You realize that you are not just an observer standing on the shore, separate from the vast expanse of water before you. Instead, you are the ocean. The distinction between “you” and “it” begins to blur, and a deep, undeniable sense of connection washes over you. The same forces that move the waves also move within you, breath, pulse, sensation. There is no longer an inside and an outside, just one seamless unfolding of existence.

This is what non-duality can feel like, a profound intimacy with everything, a deep relaxation into simply being. You stop holding yourself apart from life, no longer feeling the need to defend or reinforce a separate sense of self. The habitual tension of “me versus the world” softens, and in its place arises a spaciousness that embraces all of experience. Instead of relating to life as something happening to you, you begin to recognize that life is happening through you, as you. This doesn’t mean your individuality disappears, but rather that it is no longer bound by rigid identity or limited by self-protective barriers. Everything is included, and in this inclusion, a profound peace emerges.

In Trillium Awakening, this experience is often described as embodied witness consciousness. It is both vast and intimate, spacious yet deeply rooted. You feel yourself as infinite awareness, but that awareness is not detached or floating somewhere above your human life, it is fully present within it. You are awake not only to your boundless nature but also to your body, your emotions, and your relationships. There is no need to reject or escape anything because nothing is outside of this wholeness. Instead of rising above your humanity, you sink more fully into it, discovering that the sacred is not elsewhere, but right here, in the heart of your embodied experience.

Part 7: The Practical Benefits of Non-duality

Now you might be wondering: How does the recognition of non-duality actually change your life? This realization that you are not a separate, isolated self but an inseparable part of the whole transforms the way you experience reality. As mentioned earlier rather than seeing life as something happening to you, you begin to recognize it as something happening through you, as you. This shift doesn’t necessarily mean life becomes free of difficulties, but it profoundly alters your relationship with challenges, emotions, and other people. Here are a few ways non-duality can impact your day-to-day experience:

One of the most immediate effects of awakening to non-duality is a profound sense of inner peace. When you stop identifying with a small, separate self that constantly needs to defend, achieve, and protect its sense of identity, much of life’s resistance fades away. The struggle to "become" something dissolves because you realize you already are everything. Instead of constantly chasing happiness, validation, or success, you rest in the simplicity of being. This doesn’t mean passivity or complacency, it means that actions arise more effortlessly, without the underlying anxiety of proving or securing a sense of self. There is a deep ease in knowing that you are life itself, and nothing is fundamentally missing.

If you are not separate from the world, what is there to fear? This doesn’t mean you’ll never experience fear again, your body and nervous system will still respond to danger as needed, but fear loses its existential grip. When you realize your true nature is infinite and indestructible, the fear of death, failure, or rejection no longer holds the same weight. Fear becomes just another passing phenomenon, like clouds in the sky, rather than something that defines you. Even in the face of difficult situations, there is an underlying stability, a knowing that at the deepest level, you are not truly at risk. This realization allows you to meet life’s uncertainties with greater courage, resilience, and trust.

Non-duality also transforms how you relate to others because it erodes the illusion of separateness. Instead of seeing people as distant entities with whom you must negotiate, compete, or seek approval, you begin to experience them as reflections of yourself. Their struggles, joys, and fears become just as real and valid as your own. This shift fosters a natural sense of compassion and understanding. Judgment softens, and interactions become less about defending a personal identity and more about authentic connection. Love is no longer about fulfilling personal needs or attachments, it becomes a recognition of shared being, a meeting of the same consciousness in different forms. Relationships, rather than being transactional or conditional, take on a depth and intimacy that feels effortless.

Without the illusion of separation, there is no longer a need to live trapped in the past or constantly strategizing for the future. You begin to experience life as it actually is, right now. Instead of chasing a better moment, you recognize that the fullness of existence is already here, in the ordinary and the mundane. Colors seem richer, sensations more vivid, and even the simplest experiences, drinking tea, feeling the wind on your skin, hearing laughter, become infused with a sense of wonder. Time loses its grip because you no longer measure your existence in terms of what has been or what is to come. Life is happening now, and this moment is always enough.

By shifting from the illusion of separateness to the direct experience of unity, non-duality dissolves unnecessary suffering and reveals a life that is inherently whole, peaceful, and profoundly interconnected.

Part 8: Duality and Non-duality

The paradox of non-duality is that it cannot exist in isolation, because for non-duality to be meaningful, there must be something that perceives it. If there were only seamless, undivided reality with no contrast, no sense of separation, and no awareness of distinction, then the experience of non-duality would not arise at all. It would be nothing, not even nothingness, just an unrecognized state without an observer or reference point. This suggests that non-duality requires duality to be known, just as stillness is only meaningful in contrast to movement, or silence can only be perceived in relation to sound.

Rather than seeing non-duality and duality as opposing forces, it may be more accurate to recognize that they co-arise, one cannot exist without the other. The very experience of awakening to non-duality is a function of contrast; a shift from the perception of separateness to the recognition of wholeness. But that shift is only possible because separateness was perceived in the first place. The mind, the body, and the world appear dualistic, filled with distinctions, self and other, here and there, good and bad. Yet the awareness that perceives these divisions is itself boundless and indivisible. If we fully collapsed into pure non-duality, there would be no experience at all, no play of existence, no unfolding of consciousness within form.

Instead of thinking of non-duality as the ultimate reality and duality as an illusion to be discarded, we might consider them as two aspects of the same whole, inseparable and interdependent. The ocean and its waves are not separate, yet the waves provide texture and movement that allow the ocean to be experienced. Likewise, non-duality is not something apart from the world of dualistic experience, it expresses itself through the world of form, contrast, and relativity. The invitation, then, is not to escape duality to non-duality, but to recognize that the two are always dancing together, each giving meaning to the other. Non-duality is not an end point; it is the silent presence within duality, and duality is the dynamic unfolding within the stillness of non-duality. Together, they form the paradox of existence itself.

Part 9: The Diamond Approach

I have come to deeply appreciate A. H. Almaas, the founder of the Diamond Approach, for his discernment of the facets of spiritual awakening. He presents a nuanced perspective on duality and non-duality, one that integrates psychological development, self-inquiry, and spiritual realization. Unlike some non-dual traditions that see duality as purely an illusion to be discarded, Almaas sees it as an essential part of the unfolding of reality. He acknowledges the co-existence of duality and non-duality, suggesting that awakening is not about rejecting one in favor of the other but about integrating both into a more deeper complete understanding of existence, what he calls Totality.

Almaas sees the ego and dualistic perception not as an obstacle to be destroyed but as a natural and necessary aspect of human development. In childhood, we develop a sense of self, a separate "I" that interacts with the world. This stage is crucial for functioning in the world, forming relationships, and navigating life. The problem arises when we become stuck in this identity, believing that this separate self is all we are. According to Almaas, ego and separation are part of the path, not something to bypass or reject outright. Instead of attempting to transcend the ego prematurely, as some non-dual traditions encourage, the Diamond Approach invites us to understand and integrate it.

At deeper levels of realization, Almaas describes Pure Being, True Nature, or Essential Presence, a non-dual reality that is the true ground of all experience. He suggests that beneath the layers of identity, conditioning, and psychological structures lies an undivided, ever-present reality that is not bound by dualistic perception. However, rather than seeing this as a static “truth” that negates the world of form, he sees it as fluid and dynamic, it expresses itself through human experience, rather than apart from it.

What makes Almaas’s view unique is his insistence that non-dual awakening is not the final destination but part of an ever-deepening realization. He sees the journey as one of integration, where we do not simply dissolve into emptiness but learn to embody our realization in daily life. In this way, duality and non-duality coexist, the personal self continues to exist, but it is now recognized as an expression of True Nature, not something separate from it. This allows for a life of deep engagement with reality, rather than detachment from it. To ride the wave and participate in the moment-to-moment of reality as it arises.

Almaas speaks of "personal essence," a unique expression of Being that continues even after awakening to non-duality. This is different from the traditional non-dual perspective that sees personal identity as an illusion. For him, awakening is not about erasing individuality but refining and deepening it, allowing it to be an authentic expression of the non-dual ground. He embraces paradox, we are both individual and universal, both form and formlessness, both a drop and the ocean. For him, we are all organs of perception of Totality, we each provide a unique perspective by which Life can witness and experience itself.

Unlike rigid non-dual frameworks that assert non-duality as the only reality, Almaas’s Diamond Approach treats the journey as an open-ended process of discovery. He doesn’t ask people to simply accept the idea of non-duality but to inquire deeply into their own experience and recognize how reality unfolds in both dual and non-dual ways. Awakening, in this sense, is not an endpoint but an ever-deepening realization of truth, one that embraces both the unity of Being and the richness of human individuality.

Part 10: A Simple Non-dual Practice

Let’s try a simple practice to help you get a taste of non-duality. Don’t do this if you’re driving or working dangerous machinery. First, find a comfortable position. Let your body settle in your chair or on ground as if you have roots that extend down into the Earth…Close your eyes if you feel safe to do so otherwise keep your eyes open…Begin by taking a few deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth…Allow the exhales to be just a little bit longer than the inhales…Allow each inhale to deepen your internal contact with yourself…Now, bring your attention to the sounds around you…Maybe you hear birds, distant traffic, or the hum of a fan. Notice how these sounds arise effortlessly in awareness…You do not need to do anything to grasp to listen to them, they simply arise…Ask yourself: Where do these sounds end and where do “I” begin?…Can you find a boundary?...Next, bring your attention to your body…Feel the sensations in your hands, feet, or chest…Are these sensations separate from the awareness that notices them?...Finally, let your attention rest in the simple knowing that you are…There’s no need to define or label this “I.”…Just rest as the awareness that holds everything…When you’re ready, take three conscious deep breaths and gently open your eyes maintaining that intimate contact with your body and self.

Part 11: Closing Thoughts

Non-duality is both beautifully simple and infinitely profound. At its heart, it is the realization that you have never been separate from life, that the boundaries you once believed in were never truly there. You are not just in the universe; you are the universe, woven seamlessly into the fabric of existence. This understanding doesn’t come through effort or achievement but through the gentle recognition of what has always been true: you are awareness itself, witnessing the ever-changing play of form, yet never separate from it.

This realization dissolves the illusion of being an isolated self struggling against the vastness of life. Instead, you see that life is not happening to you, it is happening as you. You are both the ocean, vast, limitless, boundless and at the same time the wave, a temporary, unique expression of that vastness, rising and falling, yet never apart from the whole. Your individuality remains, but it is no longer confined by the false idea of separation. Instead, it becomes an authentic, fluid expression of the totality of Being, moving freely without resistance.

And so, non-duality is not about transcending the human experience, nor is it about rejecting the world of form. It is about embracing the paradox that you are both infinite and finite, everything and nothing, stillness and movement, presence and form, all at once. When this truth is recognized, life takes on a new depth. Every moment becomes a dance between the eternal and the fleeting, the vast and the intimate, the boundless and the beautifully personal. Non-duality is not a philosophy to believe in but a reality to be lived, a recognition that everything you seek, everything you long for, has always been right here, as you, and you, are both the ocean and the wave, infinite and unique, all at once.

Thank you for joining me today. If any this resonates with you, I encourage you to subscribe, share this podcast, and leave a review. Until next time, remember: awakening isn’t something you achieve. It’s something you allow.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Three Petals. To learn more about Jim Trofatter or this podcast and associated blog go to thethreepetals.online where the words the, three and petals are one continuous string of letters. Contact information is on the website.

The Three Petals Podcast is hosted by buzzsprout.com and the podcast and curated transcript can be found at thethreepetals.buzzsprout.com

To learn more about Trillium Awakening go to www.trilliumawakening.org.

Music was written by JK Productions and was obtained free of charge from www.Pond5.com, that’s www. Dot P-O-N-D, the number 5 dot com.

This episode of the Three Petals was developed in conjunction with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

This is Jim Trofatter and I hope to see you next time on The Three Petals: Where the Infinite Meets the Intimate.