Living With Intention and Claiming Your Soul's Purpose with Bill Donius

A Personal Note From Orion

Welcome, Stellar Life listeners! I’m thrilled to present my powerful conversation with the remarkable Bill Donius. Bill and I discuss how to receive and embrace revelations that can amplify our light and purpose.

Bill is a bestselling author, former CEO, and pioneering teacher who shares his transformative methods to unlock creative problem-solving with diverse, international audiences. Bill’s background as a CEO of multiple corporations and esteemed personal growth institutions like the Esalen Institute and IMD in Switzerland, has given him vital insight into personal transformation. His innovative teachings include groundbreaking right-brain thinking to access higher wisdom. His bestselling book, Thought Revolution, has become a self-help game-changer.

In this profound episode, you’ll receive a rich download of soul-nourishing insights and practices to help you peel back your emotional and spiritual layers, reconnect with your deeper callings, and approach each day with clarity and purpose. Bill’s wisdom flows from a lifetime of spiritual seeking, facing existential questions head-on after major losses, and directly experiencing the continuity of consciousness.

Whether you’re feeling stuck, craving meaning, or simply want to live with greater intentionality, this conversation is an awakening, internal journey. Don’t miss this chance to receive Bill’s grounded yet paradigm-shifting teachings. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the show!

In This Episode

[03:12] – Orion interviews Bill Donius, exploring spiritual and philosophical ideas on connecting to the right hemisphere of the brain for higher self-awareness and infinite possibilities.
[08:17] – Bill talks about how our soul has a purpose and emphasizes the importance of intentional thinking.
[12:04] – Orion asks Bill whether writing is a form of channeling or thinking.
[16:42] – Orion and Bill discuss their reflections on past life regression work and connecting with future versions of ourselves.
[24:52] – Bill shares his personal experience with grief and how he dealt with it.
[35:25] – Bill offers some tips for living a stellar life.

Jump to Links and Resources

About Today’s Show

Hi, Bill. Welcome to the Stellar Life podcast. Thank you so much for being here again. It’s so phenomenal having you here on the show again.

Thanks, Orion. It’s great to come back for this return engagement. It’s been a few years.

It’s been eight years. You were my first episode on the show. I recorded ten or fifteen episodes and put your episode number one because I loved it so much. We had such a beautiful connection, and I just loved everything you talked about. A lot of things happened.

How come I look so much older, and you look the same?

You look pretty much the same, too. What happened in the last eight years? What are some amazing ‘aha’ moments? I know you grew, expanded, and did so many more things. Maybe you can share a little bit of an update about it.

The need to discover our connection and purpose is universal.

I guess what I would wish for all of your listeners is that when you can find work that aligns with your passion, potential, and skill set, that’s a really good place to be because it doesn’t feel so much like you’re working. It feels like just every day you wake up, and it’s like, “Oh yeah, I get to do some fun school stuff today.”

I’m lucky I didn’t always feel that way in life, but I have for the past 15 years, and that’s a great luxury to be in that zone where you feel like you’re making a contribution, making a difference, helping people, learning, being curious, and being able to make a difference in people’s lives and the lives of companies.

It’s really just been a continuation of all of that in more places. However, I teach now. I’m on the faculty at IMD Business School in Switzerland and the Modern Elder Academy in Mexico and Santa Fe. I’m still teaching at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Then, I’ve done things in other places around the world, including Canada, Italy, and others. It’s discovering how universal the need for connection, for purpose, and for discovering what makes us tick and why we’re here on the planet in the first place. What’s our purpose for even being here?

My views have evolved. I’ve done a lot of work in that realm and met many people on this journey who are working around what’s next and how consciousness survives death. That’s been really fascinating because my beliefs have changed to include a belief now that our soul’s journey is one that we choose in this lifetime, what we want to do, who it is, the family, the lessons we’re here to learn. Then we come into this incarnate form and forget a lot of stuff along the way, but hopefully, we will try our best to do and learn whatever those lessons are. Our consciousness survives our body, and we go on to whatever’s next.

Learning and wondering about how to process grief has opened up a curiosity that led to new information and possibilities.

I’ve had a lot of experience also in the last two or three years with grief and helping people process their grief because I lost several significant people in my life over these past eight years, including both parents and some friends. Learning and wondering about that has opened up a curiosity that led to new information and possibilities.

Would you say that you’re more connected to creation than ever before?

Yes. I feel like it’s not just a random accident that we show up on the planet for whatever many years that we have. There is this sense that we’re here for a purpose. Where the dots connect for me is using this technique that I learned in therapy 27 years ago, specifically how to tap into the right side of the brain. That higher consciousness has been really helpful, especially as I get older, in figuring out what I still need to learn and what lessons are still in front of me.

This process is really helpful in becoming aware of what’s missing and why I’m still having difficulty in this or that area. It’s helpful to be able to download that information while I still can. I’ve always been a little bit of a procrastinator.

Now, at 65, I’m thinking, “Okay, I better figure this stuff out because I hope I have quite a bit longer. But in case I don’t, I want to just get to it and figure out what I need to learn, get these lessons under my belt, so to speak, so that I maybe don’t have to repeat all these things, and I can move on and do something else next time.”

Wow. That’s so beautiful. Do you think that our soul comes here for a purpose? How does it work? Do we have the freedom of choice, or are we given some master plan? But according to our choices, we can get different outcomes.

Activate your right brain to change your thought patterns.

I think yes to all three of those things. I think we do have freedom of choice. We do have a plan when we get here. It can be fuzzy, which is to say that I think in our soul’s journey, we make an intentional choice to have this experience, this body, these parents, these friends, and this kind of life. But as we enter into that body, from what I’ve read, it becomes fuzzy. We don’t remember exactly what we’re trying to do.

We do our best to figure it out, make mistakes, and somehow go through tough or bad periods. We’re belaboring through all of that. If we’re lucky, we find ways to get that clarity. That’s what I found particularly helpful about learning how to activate the right side of your brain because that’s where that clarity exists in our higher consciousness.

Even asking the basic question, what’s my highest and best purpose in this lifetime, is a wonderful question to ask and get a different perspective because we may have always thought it was A. Then maybe it’s M, something completely different. Or it’s related to, but it’s still quite different.

Thought Revolution by William A. Donius

It gives us an opportunity to be more intentional about the choices we’re making, why we’re doing things, why we may stop doing something, and learn from that higher part of ourselves rather than just going through the motions, charging ahead, and just doing all the sports metaphors, “Oh, you just got to bust through those walls. You just have to wake up and have that protein shake and just do it,” even if you don’t feel like it. All that may be good, too, but I feel like it ignores some of the higher-functioning stuff that might help us on our journey.

We had a whole episode on the process of nondominant handwriting and how, through non-dominant handwriting, you connect to the right side of the brain, which is the side that is your creativity from the word creator where you are connected. You can channel different realms. You can channel completely different answers.

If you guys are listening and haven’t been here for eight years for the first episode, or you forgot, just go to stellarlifepodcast.com. My goodness, it’s been a long, long time.

I know. I would just add one thing there because I’ve noticed in one of the other observations over these eight years that we can tend to diminish the quality of the answers and the work itself if we’re just saying non-dominant handwriting because it belies the fact that it’s actually a super powerful thinking process more than it is writing with a non-dominant hand, which sounds like just hand scratching, which it sometimes can be.

It’s really about learning how to activate the right hemisphere of the brain and to truly think differently. Handwriting is a byproduct of the process, not the inverse. It’s the thinking that drives the writing rather than the writing driving the thinking.

Tapping into the right side of your brain is helpful for becoming aware and being able to download information while you still can.

Is it thinking, or is it channeling?

It’s some of both because in these 27 years, surprisingly, I’ve found myself in, psychologists would say, intuitive writing, which also applies and has been used for decades and decades already in therapy. It often feels like channeling because I’m writing something down that’s unexpected, and maybe that is an answer to a question that I pose that I don’t like. It may not be something that I even want to do or want to recognize.

In that sense, it feels more like channeling because I don’t think I would want to think about doing that. I wouldn’t want to think about doing that. The fact that it’s coming through anyway is almost in spite of my conventional thought process that that stuff is showing up. A hard medicine difficult to swallow at times is what we’re getting. I think it’s a bit of both.

I’ve been doing it. I did that a couple of days ago. I woke up at 5 AM. I know that if I wake up, I wake up. I can’t go back to sleep. I’ve had a lot of things running in my head and lots of questions. I don’t know if I did it correctly, but I just did it. I loved all the answers. I felt very calm afterward.

One question is, “Am I manipulating this, or is it completely pure channeling? If I am, in some way, interfering in the process, what can I do to be a pure channel and purely connected to my higher self or whatever it is—different dimensions, elders, masters, people that passed away, God, creation, angels, who knows?”

I would say that the protocol that I observed because it worked so well, not that we have to be super rigid, but I get a little bit rigid about this myself. That is to say that I always pose the question that I want to focus on.

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In the case of the example you just gave, a perfectly good question might be, especially since it’s one you’re already interested in, “When I do this type of thinking and writing, am I channeling, or am I thinking about this?” And then answers fall forth. Write that out completely, presumably with your dominant hand, and then lock in that question. That’s step number one.

Step two is closing your eyes and allowing that state of flow to exist. Suspend all beliefs and disbeliefs about what you may get, why, or how—all that noise that we typically get in our thought process—and just let all that go.

Step three is thinking, believing, and trusting that by virtue of when you put that pen or writing instrument in your non-dominant hand, it’s possible that you can initiate and activate the neural pathways and, indeed, have a different process occurring inside your brain.

It’s the thinking that drives the writing rather than the writing driving the thinking.

This is what the Nobel Prize was based on. Those hemispheric divisions exist between the left and right. When we activated that right side, the award was also for its independence. It’s almost like going to another person.

In fact, a great book written, Of Two Minds explains just that by Michael Gazzaniga, who studied under Roger Sperry and worked in his lab. It’s that we are going to a different place. If you hold all that in your mind, then when you’re doing it alone, you reread the question. Open your eyes, reread the question, and allow it to flow. You don’t give yourself a time limit. You don’t force it. It may take 2, 30 or 60 seconds, and you just stay in that flow state.

From what you said, the meter is always what I get. Is it helpful? Does it make sense? Is it fresh? Is it different? Is it stuff that, in some cases, I didn’t expect? That’s generally a good sign that it’s working for you and you’re allowing that process to occur and answers to flow forth.

My recurring life lessons are all about trust and surrender over and over again.

Thank you for being candid and vulnerable in sharing that. A great follow-up question you might want to ask is whether this works as you’re beginning to see in a didactic fashion. Whatever is surfacing, there’s always the invitation to go beneath and beyond and ask why. Why is that?

Don’t give yourself a time limit when tapping into the right side of the brain. You don’t force it; just stay in the flow state.

You could ask yourself the question, “Why am I always focused on issues of trust?” What you may find, as I did, is that something happened very early in life, maybe even before conscious memories, that broke that trust for you. Even if it was broken as a child, the brain is so powerful that it remembers it.

It will throw a monkey wrench every time certain issues come up because it recognizes the facts and circumstance patterns that exist. For example, it may be that in a previous lifetime, something happened that caused a breach, and it’s carried over into this lifetime, making it harder for you to operate in those zones.

I’ve been doing a lot of past life regressions in the last few years and hypnosis, given hypnosis, receiving hypnosis. I really like that. We can get into this trans state.

Have you tackled that issue of trust in any of those past life regressions?

Yeah, some of those.

Okay, great. Kudos to you. That’s really good, difficult, important work. I imagine you feel it’s lifting your spirit. You don’t feel it’s weighted down.

Our consciousness lives longer than our body.

Every day, I’m getting better and better. As an infinite being, I have infinite potential to grow and learn. I’m ever-expanding and ever-evolving as a human being. It’s fascinating. I’m really happy to be alive and experiencing all of it—the good, the bad, the ugly, the happy, all of them.

Right. It’s wonderful to be doing this work as I’ve got to meet your son. It’s so wonderful to meet and do this work with him in your world and your husband and to just be there for one another and provide an example for him. It’s a more intentional, authentic, complete person. Even in a small child, the brain picks up all these things. They can read all these things in us. Putting the best version of yourself forward for him and for yourself is wonderful.

I struggled with postpartum depression, and I struggled with a lot of things in the last few years. I’m sure some of my struggles, insecurities, and whatever rubbed on him and affected him. But I give myself grace because it is what it is. We have to deal with what we have.

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He still came here to experience me in all my versions: the version where I’m having this beautiful conversation with you and feeling great and also the version where I’m crying on the floor and completely feeling lost. In one way, I try not to avoid showing my emotions in front of him. I don’t want him to experience me as fake.

Sometimes I’m angry, sometimes I’m happy. This is who I am. Of course, when I was in the depth of the pain, I tried not to have him show it. He was nursing for three years, so he’s always fully connected to me. He felt the depths of my pain but also the depth of my feeling elated and expanded, as well as all the beautiful experiences that came with that. As long as there is love and an intention to grow, it can do, right?

I agree 100%. I believe that he chose you to be his mother and to be part of this soul’s journey; that he needed to learn whatever he needed to learn in part from you, and that’s a big part of his journey. Being authentic in the way you’re fulfilling it, learning yourself, and growing yourself is going to really help him as well because he’s witnessing all of that and sensing and feeling all of that as well.

OF TWO MINDS by Fredric Schiffer

I’m a fun mom. We dance together, we sing together, and we have little adventures, like an indoor campfire with skewers made out of marshmallows and watermelon.

That’s a new one for me. Super creative—indoor campfire. Wow.

He invented that, and we just went along. It’s really cute.

With that work that you do, do you believe we can tap into different timelines or different versions of ourselves from the future and receive knowledge from it?

I remembered that from last time, too—the really good, thoughtful, provocative questions that you ask. It’s a yes with an asterisk. I feel like it’s all lumped in together. Although I’ve never asked specifically, for me, that source, that higher self that I’m tapping into, is the best version of my soul’s journey through this lifetime and many others.

I’m getting that wisdom that may exist there. It also may feel like wisdom from guides and others I’ve connected with, both in this lifetime and maybe others. I’m generally satisfied enough with what I’m getting that I haven’t probed too much more deeply to figure out where exactly it’s coming from.

Part of me is probably like, “Oh, I don’t want to upset the apple cart,” necessarily because it’s worked well enough that it’s working. I don’t want to do maybe something that will cause it not to work. Maybe it has superstition with it, which seems ironic that I would be, especially after all these years. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, it does. Maybe a good question for you would be like, “Why am I superstitious about it?” If time is not linear, we might be able to return to a different lifetime where we mastered something, either in the spiritual or physical realm, with our body. Maybe we can get answers from that, or we can perhaps connect to future versions. I don’t know. This is so cool.

Being authentic in the way you’re fulfilling your purpose, learning yourself, and growing yourself is going to really help others around you.

As I’ve reflected on that a bit longer when you were posing that question, I’m remembering now that there was a time years ago when I asked that question and got what I speculated earlier that it was a combination of my essence, who I am at a soul level, combined with the guides that are around me. It wasn’t a hundred percent one or the other but a blending. That’s what I recall from years ago, but I’m going to try it again. Since it’s been a fair amount of time, I’ll email you if I get something different.

I would love that. Thank you. Maybe I can do the same and ask the same question. I’m very curious. It seems like my psychic abilities have grown in the last few years, and it’s fascinating.

I think when we experience the loss or physical death of loved ones, especially those who were so completely bonded to and connected to on their journey, once their journey on this planet ends, we search for meaning. We wonder, “Is that it? Are they just six feet under, and it’s over?” I think it’s more likely that we want to take a deep dive, do the investigations, and read about this phenomenon.

There’s a great book and a Netflix series by the same name, Surviving Death by Leslie Kean, that I can highly recommend. It’s an entry point for taking a look at all of this. If you read her book or watch the seven-part series with one of the top ones on Netflix, in fact, a couple of years ago, you’ll conclude that we do. There’s so much empirical evidence that in those chapters and stories, you’ll conclude that we survive bodily death.

Yes, we do. It’s beautiful.

Even more so, some have the gift of communicating with those who have gone on and crossed over to the other realm.

I’ve been in this evening with this psychic. She just had a group of us. Spirits came through, and she described them. She’s like, “Does it resonate with somebody?” A person would raise their hand, and they have a full-blown conversation with incredible details, like names—specific names, specific things that are out of the ordinary, and so specific and accurate. It’s undeniable just to sit in the presence of something like that.

I agree. I’ve seen that as well. In fact, I’ve been a guest speaker at several different grief conferences now. I can definitely recommend a resource: the Forever Family Foundation. It was formed by Bob Ginsberg and his wife 20-something years ago when they lost their daughter and were looking for answers to many questions.

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They also, unfortunately for them, came across some mediums that took the money but did not give them what they felt was an appropriate reading or counsel. They are now in the business of certifying mediums, and they have a science board that is 20 members deep. By disclosure, I’m also on their board of trustees as of last year.

They do a superbly good job. Their website has tons of nonprofit resources, including their podcast, blog, and radio show. They have articles. They have only the 17 in the world mediums they’ve certified as having passed their legitimate test. They do all these double-blind studies and all that.

If people are in doubt about going to anyone, I don’t think all of them are the same. Some have the gift, and some do not. You want to go to somebody that you know and can trust. I would definitely recommend foreverfamilyfoundation.org, their site, which lists them all as possibilities.

Some have the gift of communicating with those who have gone on and crossed over to the other realm.

By you sharing that, I feel your heart. It feels like you’ve been through your grief and your pain. You want to help people. How did you deal with your grief? What did you do?

I felt the need to spend time away and alone. Not completely alone, but away from the everyday. I did something I wanted to do years earlier but decided not to because my parents needed me. They both had various forms of Parkinson’s, so I didn’t want to leave them. After they had passed, I did what I wanted to do maybe ten years earlier.

I bought a home in Rancho Mirage, California, and went into the high desert. There, I had a lot of quiet time and a lot of time for reflection. I didn’t see the same old everything that would remind me of them because they died 11 months apart.

Being there for 5½–6 years, not full-time, but half the year, and then in St. Louis, where I’m from, the other half of the year, it became easier to deal with all that. But there were many amazing, beautiful experiences, even messages that came through them, and signs that appeared in the world. Probably the most striking of which, I don’t know if you have time for this, but it’s a short story.

I have time.

The most striking and the saddest was my youngest brother, who died at age 23. He committed suicide. He was just a really beautiful person and soul, very smart and talented, and just ran into a number of issues and difficulties with drugs, alcohol, and just a whole variety of things. He had been gone for so long at this point that we were in the backyard at the pool at the house in Rancho Mirage when my partner walked over. The dog was doing something in the grass, and he walked over to see what was going on. He also noticed that the door that came into the backyard was wide open, and it was normally locked and closed. Only the gardeners would come in and out.

Connect with your highest self by tapping into and embracing all of your life experiences.

He closed that door, which was super odd in and of itself because it had been closed earlier in the day. Hours later, it somehow was open with no one around. He noticed a yellow and black bird in the grass that was nearly dead and brought it over to me. That’s what the French bulldog had been looking at and trying to sniff around.

When he looked at that bird and brought it over, I was like, “I think it’s dead, isn’t it?” He goes, “No, it’s still alive.” He put it on this bougainvillea branch and behind us. In seconds, he reaffirmed, grabbed onto that branch, and then got stronger. A couple of beats later, he took flight from the branch and flew around the pool three times. To our shock and amazement, we were just dumbfounded, looking up and watching it, and then took off.

Importantly, I guess the most important punchline of this was that this all happened on the anniversary of my brother’s death, March 6th. When I thought about all of that, and I had been thinking about him earlier in the day, I always had a sense of empathy and sadness with his passing. I guess not only did he die young, but he also committed suicide. So it’s always this difficult memory to confront, even decades later.

Surviving Death by Leslie Kean

I went to my journal, used the version of this process I had learned to tap into our higher consciousness, and asked, “What was that? Was that a message for me? What just happened in the yard?” Indeed, his message clearly came through for me: “I don’t want you to think of me any longer as that bird that’s dying. I’m now soaring. I’m in a much better place. Don’t worry about me any longer.”

When I learned that, it changed a lot of things. It’s been a couple of years since then. Now that that happened, I feel very differently about it and am much happier that he is in a restored state and that he’s “soaring.” It made a huge difference in the way I feel about his passing.

That’s beautiful.

With my mother, the message was one of a request for forgiveness. In the end, she was in a state with Lewy Body Parkinson’s, and she said and did some things that were uncharacteristic of the relationship that she and I had earlier in life for my 50-something years. It was a request from her. It felt like to forgive her for those things and that she didn’t mean them. It was the disease that had taken over, and I asked if I could forgive and move forward.

Other messages from my dad included being proud of what I was up to and doing and reaffirming what he would typically do in front of big speeches, opportunities, or work products. It really felt to me that their consciousness was around. It’s been a wonderful feeling to know they’re with me somehow.

And they will forever be with you, love you, and be proud of you—this lifetime and the next lifetime.

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We want to believe it when we see the words, feel them, and even hear them in their voice. In my dad’s case, when I went back and compared the handwriting from my non-dominant hand that was being, in this case, probably channeled through, that handwriting, especially the last part, “Love, Dad,” was almost a photocopy of his signature from 10 years before, which I wouldn’t have remembered exactly how I would have signed it or wrote it in the same handwriting style. So, some fascinating things are going on.

Beautiful. Wow. I wish we had more time together. Thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing this beautiful story with me. I just really love you, and I love your heart. You’re an incredible human being. Thank you for taking the time to be here.

Before we say goodbye, what are your three top tips for living a stellar life? And where can people find you?

We want to believe it when we see the words, feel them, and even hear them in their voice.

Thank you so much, Orion. It’s always a pleasure to be with you. I want to hear more about whatever else you’re up to next time. Williamdonius.com is my website. That’s probably the best place. I’m on LinkedIn as William Bill Donius. It’s more for the business work that I do with big companies. bill@nullwilliamdonius.com is my email address. Thank you for that opportunity as well.

Thank you, too. I appreciate you. Before we leave, do you have any tips for a stellar life to share with the audience, even in three words?

Be intentional—did it in two.

Good job.

Don’t go through the motions. Be intentional about your actions. We get this wonderful opportunity in this lifetime and want to use it wisely.

Wonderful. Thank you, Bill. I appreciate you very much.

Thanks, Orion. Take care.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓}Find work that aligns with your passion, potential, and skillset. Discover your true calling by exploring activities that light you up, utilize your natural talents, and allow you to grow.

{✓}Unlock your intuitive wisdom. Access the creative powers of your right brain through techniques like non-dominant handwriting. Non-dominant handwriting quiets your analytical left brain and opens new neural pathways. This helps you channel fresh insights and innovative ideas.

{✓}Activate your higher consciousness through deep questions. For example, ask yourself, “What’s my highest purpose?” Refrain from surface living. Embrace your greater purpose.

{✓}Explore past life regressions and practice hypnosis. These methods can help you uncover deep self-truths, reveal karmic patterns and gifts, and uncover keys to your current journey.

{✓}Spend time in quiet reflection, especially after losses or major life events. When you experience drastic change, take time to be still. This can help you process and integrate deep life lessons and truths.

{✓}Open your mind to supernatural signs, messages, and experiences. The universe constantly whispers wisdom through symbolic signs, kundalini experiences, visitations, and more.

{✓}Journal and record insights that come through alternative thinking. Your highest truths often arise through non-linear pathways like dreams, meditation, and creative pursuits. Diligently capture these valuable breadcrumbs by keeping a dedicated journal.

{✓}Practice radical self-forgiveness and release the chains of resentment to reclaim your life. You cannot soar to new heights while weighed down by grievances.

{✓}Live intentionally. Trust your soul’s journey. Have faith that all of your experiences serve a greater purpose, even if you can’t see the big picture.

{✓}Visit billdonius.com to tap into Bill Donius’ wealth of wisdom and explore opportunities to directly work with him. You can also connect with him through LinkedIn or via email at bill@nullwilliamdonius.com.

Links and Resources

About Bill Donius

William (Bill) A. Donius, a former banker and CEO, teaches his creative method of problem-solving to a wide range of audiences around the world in corporate and personal development venues, including the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, and IMD in Switzerland.