Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
TRIP: Author and spiritual teacher at The Self-Inquiry Center.
NICK GANCITANO: Yes.
TRIP: Was a high school All-American Soccer Player and later the
place-kicker for the Penn State Nittany Lions under the legendary
coach Joe Paterno, where his team won the National
Championship in 1983. Nick played briefly with the Detroit Lions
before a knee injury retired him to the business world. Four years
later, Nick entered the public school system to teach science and
coach. Nick has privately mentored nearly 50 place-kickers who
received Division 1 collegiate scholarships, emphasizing the
significance of yoga and meditation to assist athletes with finding
The Zone. He then transitioned into teaching yoga and then
meditation to the general public. After discovering self-inquiry, he
experienced a profound shift and sought the direction of various
conscious teachers, including Ramana Maharshi, who then guided
Nick to share the Self-Inquiry in the West.
It's an amazing story, Nick.
WIZARD: I'm going to want to ask him about that.
TRIP: Okay.
WIZARD: Because I had a similar thing happen to me in Benares
over 15 years ago, I had an apparition of Ramana Maharshi that
was just stunning, and I know Ramana Maharshi never would 'fess
up to any doership in any of that, so I reckon it was my mind
playing a wonderful trip on me. But I want to share with Nick
about that and get his insight on it because there are lots of us who
have been called.
TRIP: So, Nick, what happened then?
NICK GANCITANO: Well, it was initially I had had a glimpse of
Ramana Maharshi as a young boy, I wasn't even aware of who he
was, and later on in life I had gotten off the whole… I'd never
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