Bryan Rice (a.k.a. Swami Christananda Bramanadi Christofire and also Shaman Xi Red Medicine Bear) is an Independent, Progressive, Free-thinking "Samadhi" (Oneness/God-Union) Catholic Priest, ordained in valid lines of apostolic succession through the Liberal and Old Catholic Churches. Bryan is a a trans-denominational, trans-religious, interfaith, apostolic/sacramental, contemporary mystic and visionary committed to the cosmic cause of helping others in deepening awareness of their inner divinity, "remembering" and "awakening" to Oneness with The Supreme Loving God and all of creation, and embodying the universal anointing of Christhood. Bryan has been on a spiritual journey, a quest of Self-Realization, seeking to discover his life's purpose since he was fifteen. In 2001, he experienced a life-altering influx of Ecstatic Light and Divine Love, igniting a spontaneous shift into awareness of being in intimate union with Spirit and the Divinity of "All That Is" (The "Allness"). Bryan was extremely humbled by this Transfigurative-Samadhi awakening, coming to know the Divine Life within and at that point, fully realizing that the Real Divine Presence was never outside of him, but was an innate reality that was unveiled to him. This experience of immense grace and Illumination ignited a state of bliss that was all pervading for many years, inspiring massive creative and artistic endeavors (fiction writing, poetry, songwriting, puppetry, sculpture, and filmmaking). This process of self-actualization coincided with a call to priesthood, a vocation he discerned for almost ten years. Prior to being ordained an Independent Catholic priest, he served as an Interfaith Minister, was initiated and ordained as a shamanic priest in two traditions, and most recently was ordained in two unique dispensations, one as a "Swamichristos", and the other as a "Zion-Samadhi" priest, the latter being symbolic for his intense quest to return again and again to the ecstatic state of "Zion Illumination" (light-transmission from the endlessly fowing River of Absolute Love and Light) and Samadhi. In the present, Bryan realizes that true "Enlightenment" is not only found in "peak" experiences of higher consciousness (just astral phenomena, which can lead to inflation), but by simply removing the perceptual blocks to the awareness of Love, done by living in the sacred heart space, bring "Presence" and "Stillness" to each conscious breath and to all mundane tasks of day to day living. Enlightenment, as he has come to know it, is not "earned" through a merit system of achievement. Though it is not a passive process, removing the mental-perceptual-blocks to the Awareness of Divine Love within, Enlightenment is more a matter of "re-alignment" - of "remembering" the state of Edenic-Paradisal-Oneness within, the primal state of True Being and Aliveness. True Enlightenment, he says, is the "realization" and "re-attunement" with the "knowing" that we never left the internal garden of God-Consciousness planted deep within. Bryan is an actor, filmmaker, published author, published poet, received a Masters degree in Divinity and a doctorate in Apostolic Philosophy, is finishing his dissertation for a doctorate in Theology (Th.D), is executive producer of "Turning Points and Transformations", and founder of a grass roots evolutionary consciousness movement/current called "Project New Humanity." He plans to initiate an internationally endorsed foundation committed to furthering this cause by empowering and motivating people cross-culturally, trans-nationally, transcending religious boundaries to attend to planetary vitality on an eco-spiritual level as well as spread the message of Oneness, Unitive Consciousness, and Innate Divinity manifested as a Collective Soul.