A conversation with Dr Stephen G Post on the universal field of consciousness, compassion, and the science of love.
For more than four decades, Dr. Stephen G. Post has been exploring one of humanity’s oldest and most profound questions: What is love, really?
A pioneering medical researcher, philosopher, and founder of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, Dr. Stephen G. Post has bridged the worlds of science and spirituality, working with leading universities and faith traditions to uncover how compassion, kindness, and purpose collective wellbeing.
An Interview with Dr. Stephen G. Post, PhD: Science Meets Spirit
In his newest book, Pure Unlimited Love: Science and the Seven Paths to Inner Peace, Dr. Post invites readers to experience love not as sentiment, but as the very structure of consciousness—the pulse that connects all living beings.
In this wide-ranging conversation, he reflects on what he calls the “One Mind,” shares stories from his life and research, and explores how living through love can transform not only individuals but the world itself.
An Interview with Dr Stephen G Post, PhD
OMTimes: Dr. Post, let’s start at the heart of it. What is Pure Unlimited Love?
Dr Stephen G Post: Pure Unlimited Love is the love that underlies and transcends every personal form of love we know. It isn’t the affection we feel for chocolate or the attachment we have for people who please us—it’s a boundless, unconditioned energy that holds all life together.
You could say it’s what mystics have called God, Source, or the One Mind.
It is that radiant consciousness from which all existence flows. When we close our eyes for the last time, I believe that is the first thing we see—the light of unlimited love welcoming us home.
In human terms, it expresses itself as compassion, forgiveness, creativity, and generosity—each a reflection of the infinite. My life’s work has been to show that this love is not just poetry or philosophy.
It is scientifically observable in how we flourish when we live it.
“Unlimited love is not something we create—it’s something we remember.”
OMTimes: How did this lifelong devotion to love begin for you personally?
Dr Stephen G Post: I was a teenager at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire—a quiet, spiritual kid with a deep curiosity about the world’s religions. I’d walk the paths between the lakes and trees, reading the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching.
Then one morning, at fifteen, I had a vivid dream. I saw a wooded path stretching west, and to my left, a boy about to leap from a ledge. A woman’s face appeared—a presence of pure compassion—and said, “If you save him, you too shall live.”
That dream stayed with me for years. I didn’t know then what it meant, but over time it became a guiding metaphor for my life: to help others is to keep one’s own soul alive. Every major decision since has been, in one way or another, about answering that call.
OMTimes: In your book, you write about “The Seven Paths to Inner Peace.” Could you share what they are and how they relate to love?
Dr Stephen G Post: Certainly. These seven paths are ways of aligning with Pure Unlimited Love in daily life. They are not abstract ideals—they are practices that can be studied, measured, and lived.
May You Give and Glow. Generosity activates what scientists call the helper’s high—endorphins that uplift our mood and strengthen the immune system.
May You Heal with Kindness. Compassionate behavior reduces stress hormones and fosters resilience. It’s literally healing.
May You Follow Your Callings. Each of us has a vocation that resonates with the universe’s intelligence. Living that purpose is living in love.
May You Raise Kind Children. Empathy is learned through example; parents who model compassion cultivate it in the next generation.
May You Know the One Mind. All consciousness is interconnected; when we quiet our ego, we tune into that shared awareness.
May You Cherish Nature. The natural world reflects love’s harmony—time in nature restores us to balance.
May You Honor Freedom. True freedom is alignment with truth and compassion. It is the liberty of the soul.
Together they form a circle, what I call the Wheel of Love, and every spoke leads back to the same center: unity.
“When we give, when we forgive, when we simply listen—love is remembering itself through us.”
OMTimes: The “One Mind” you describe sounds mystical, but you also connect it to neuroscience and creativity. Can you explain?
Dr Stephen G Post: Yes. The “One Mind” is what philosophers might call nonlocal consciousness. It’s the understanding that our Mind is not confined to the brain; it’s a universal field in which our individual minds participate.
One story that shaped this for me happened when I was seventeen at Reed College in Oregon. A friend burst into a café one rainy night and invited me on a ride on his new Harley Davidson.
Against better judgment, I said yes. Within minutes, we were racing 180 miles an hour down the Pacific Coast Highway in the rain. I was terrified and certain I’d die.
When we returned safely, I staggered to my dormitory, shaken. The phone rang; it was my mother in New York. She said she’d awakened moments earlier with overwhelming dread and prayed for my life. We were three thousand miles apart. That night taught me that consciousness is not limited by distance or matter.
Years later, I saw the same principle in my friend Steve Jobs, who was also at Reed. His creativity came from tuning into that field of awareness. He often said ideas didn’t come from him but through him. That’s the One Mind at work, where science, art, and spirit meet.
OMTimes: What does modern science say about love’s effect on our health and well-being?
Dr Stephen G Post: Quite a lot. Through my work with the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love and the John Templeton Foundation, we’ve supported hundreds of studies showing how altruism, gratitude, and forgiveness improve physical and mental health.
People who give of themselves tend to have stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure, less depression, and greater longevity. When we act kindly, the brain releases oxytocin, the “trust hormone”—which fosters calm and connection.
Even observing an act of kindness activates reward centers in the brain. In other words, love is biologically contagious.
The scientific data validates what sages have always taught: love is medicine. It heals both the giver and the receiver.
“Science now measures what the soul has always known: love heals.”
OMTimes: You’ve also studied what happens when people come close to death. What have you learned from that research?
Dr Stephen G Post: Yes, I’ve worked with Dr. Sam Parnia at NYU Langone on what we call Remembered Experiences of Death, or RED. These are moments when people clinically die—no heartbeat, no brain activity—and are later resuscitated.
About twenty percent report profound experiences: encountering a light of unconditional love, a sense of expansion beyond time and body. Nearly all come back transformed, more compassionate, less fearful, more purposeful.
We studied this scientifically, interviewing patients and analyzing EEG data. What’s remarkable is that the experiences are consistent across cultures. That suggests consciousness continues when the brain stops functioning.
To me, it confirms that Pure Unlimited Love is not just the background of life—it is the destiny toward which all consciousness returns.
OMTimes: That’s extraordinary. Does this change how you think about fear or mortality?
Dr Stephen G Post: Absolutely. Once you understand that love and consciousness are eternal, the fear of death diminishes. Life becomes about alignment, not accumulation.
The people who’ve had these near-death or remembered-death experiences come back saying, “I understand now that every small act of kindness matters.” They stop chasing validation and start living from gratitude.
When you know you are part of something infinite, you stop clinging and start giving.
OMTimes: How does meditation fit into this picture?
Dr Stephen G Post: Meditation is how we listen to the One Mind. It’s not about escaping thought but about remembering stillness. I meditate each morning for about half an hour—not to empty my Mind, but to center my day around compassion.
Even a single minute of slow breathing can shift our physiology from stress to peace. Over time, meditation rewires the brain for empathy.
And it’s important to say that meditation is not passive. As the Dalai Lama once reminded me, “Compassion must become movement.” A peaceful heart naturally acts for the good of others.
For me, meditation and service are two sides of the same coin—both expressions of unlimited love.
“Stillness is not the absence of movement; it’s the presence of awareness.”
OMTimes: You speak often about freedom. What does “the spirit of freedom” mean to you?
Dr Stephen G Post: Freedom is spiritual before it is political. It’s the capacity to live from truth and compassion rather than fear or compulsion.
The ego thinks freedom means doing whatever it wants. The soul knows freedom as harmony with divine order—the freedom to love without condition.
When we live from that space, we’re not reactive. We become creators. We align our will with the greater intelligence that guides evolution itself. That’s real liberation.
OMTimes: You’ve worked in hospitals and with families for decades. What have you observed about how love transforms suffering?
Dr Stephen G Post: I’ve seen it again and again. In hospitals, families who express gratitude and forgiveness recover their strength faster. Patients who feel cared for—who experience love, even from nurses and volunteers—heal more fully, even when their diseases remain.
Love doesn’t erase pain, but it gives pain meaning. It’s the light that shines through the cracks.
I think of the Holocaust survivors Viktor Frankl described—those who shared their last piece of bread in the camps often lived longer. Their generosity was a spiritual resilience. To love in suffering is to transcend it.
OMTimes: How can ordinary people begin living this truth more fully?
Dr Stephen G Post: Start small. Each morning, take one minute to center your intention: Today I will live in kindness.
Notice the opportunities to give to a neighbor, a colleague, a stranger. Listen instead of judging. Forgive quickly. Speak words that heal.
These small acts are the ways love moves through the world. And when we live that way, we feel connected to something vast and luminous.
It’s not about perfection. It’s about remembering who we really are expressions of the same universal consciousness, each carrying the same divine spark.
“We are here to expand the circle of love until it knows no limits.”
OMTimes: What gives you hope for humanity right now?
Dr Stephen G Post: Hope is love’s imagination. Even in our polarized and anxious times, I see people awakening to connection, volunteers rebuilding communities, scientists studying empathy, and young people hungering for meaning.
As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Hope is that dream, a faith in the unseen goodness still at work.
And remember: the universe itself is biased toward love. Life evolves toward complexity, cooperation, and consciousness. That’s hope written into the structure of creation.
OMTimes: In closing, what does inner peace mean to you?
Dr Stephen G Post: Inner peace is living in rhythm with love. It doesn’t mean you never face chaos or loss; it means that even in the storm, you know the ocean beneath is calm.
When your life aligns with generosity, forgiveness, and compassion, peace becomes your natural state.
Ultimately, Pure Unlimited Love is not something we chase. It’s the reality we awaken to. It’s who we’ve always been.
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Dr. Stephen G. Post, PhD, reminds us that love is not a metaphor but the physics of the spirit, the invisible field connecting all hearts and all worlds. Whether through acts of compassion, moments of stillness, or scientific study, his work invites us to rediscover that the universe itself is, at its deepest level, a living network of care.
He is the author of Pure Unlimited Love: Science and the Seven Paths to Inner Peace and founder of the Institute for Research on Pure Unlimited Love. His work bridges medicine, spirituality, and the science of compassion. Learn more at www.stephengpost.com.
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