New Dimensions

This deep dialogue is dense with pertinent information about our food supply that is critical to the overall health of all people and most especially children. Honeycutt is a wealth of knowledge that has direct impact on all of us. She is a living example that together we can make a huge difference in the way people eat, their health, and the health of the planet. Zen Honeycutt is the mother of three boys and Founding Executive Director of Moms Across America, a national coalition of unstoppable moms. Their motto is “Empower Moms, Healthy Kids.” She is the author of Unstoppable: Transforming Sickness and Struggle Into Triumph, Empowerment and a Celebration of Community (Create Space 2018)Interview Date: 9/12/2019    Tags: Zen Honeycutt, Robyn O’Brien’s TED talk, food supply, Roundup, Patriotism on a Plate, Jeffry Smith’s movie, Genetic Roulette. California Proposition 37, food labeling, GMOs, glyphosate, BT Bacillus thuringiensis, HT herbicide tolerant seeds, Caius Rommens, Pandora’s Potatoes the Wo

More and more of us spend enormous spans of our time captured, optimized, or appropriated as a financial resource by the technologies we use daily. We are caught in a dynamic where our value is determined by our productivity. Odell encourages us to contemplate the attention economy and notice how it is dominating cultures worldwide and how to resist it. Jenny Odell is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer based in Oakland, California who teaches at Stanford University. She has been an artist-in-residence at such places as the San Francisco dump, Facebook, the Internet Archive, and the San Francisco Planning Department. She has exhibited her art all over the world. She is the author of How To Do Nothing: Resisting The Attention Economy (Melville HousePublishing 2019)Tags: Jenny Odell, Morcom Rose Garden, Ghost Ship Fire, usefulness, uselessness, Chuang Tzu, Old Survivor Tree, birdwatching, attention, John Cage, siloed senses, Eleanor Coppola’s Windows art map, Applause Encouraged art experience, twitter, libr

Nepo’s creative works, books, poems, workshops are all about creating a sacred place where the experience of honest truth can happen. Even in our deepest moments of suffering, he encourages us to seek out slivers of light seeping through the broad slats of darkness. His genius is to discover metaphors as a way of understanding and making meaning of our lives. Mark Nepo is the author of many audio learning projects and over 20 books including Reduced To Joy (Cleis Press 2013), Seven Thousand Ways To Listen: Staying Close To What Is Sacred (Free Press 2012), The One Life We’re Given: Finding the Wisdom That Waits in Your heart (Atria Books 2016), The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Sounds True 2016) and Drinking from the River of Light: The Life of Expression (Sounds True 2019)Interview Date: 8/10/2019         Tags: Mark Nepo, metaphors, cancer, grief, Gail Warner, Pine Manor Retreat Center, Doc Palmer, creativity, immersion, whales and dolphins, suffering, telling stories

Our brains are set with a negative bias. Hanson gives us a simple practice that resets our brains to more joy, fulfilling relationships, and more peace of mind and heart. He is a neuropsychologist who writes and teaches extensively on personal growth and contemplative practice. He is a co-founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, and editor of the Wise Brain Bulletin. His books include Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (New Harbinger 2009), Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (New Harbinger 2011), Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence (Harmony Books 2013) and Meditations to Change Your Brain - CD Set(Sounds True 2009) Interview Date: 12/2/2013     Tags: Rick Hanson, Ph.D., brain, brain science, neuroscience, brain’s negative bias, negative bias of the brain, positive thinking, structure of the brain, limbic system, subcortex, brainstem,

Many explorers are seeking a depth of healing that is more experiential through expanded states of consciousness. Some modalities of this are sweat lodges, vision quests, breath work, and where is it legal, psychedelics in Mexico. Here we explore the experiential therapeutic applications of expanded states of consciousness that lead to healing and transformation. Françoise Bourzat is a consciousness guide and counselor. She has a master’s degree in Somatic Psychology and is a Certified Hakomi Practitioner. After traveling the world, she became an apprentice to an indigenous Mazatec woman leading healing ceremonies with sacred mushrooms in the high mountains of Southern Mexico. Drawing from years of her close apprenticeship with this Mazatec curandera, as well as her training in other indigenous traditions, Françoise has developed a comprehensive approach that bridges Western and indigenous modalities. She trains therapists and facilitators and teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She also

Becoming an elder can be a time of great creativity and contribution.This deep dialogue explores what it means to be to be proactive in approaching aging and becoming an elder in the 21st century. Percy’s research points out that growing older does not mean we can no longer actualize new and healthier futures. These years may be our most influential ones yet. Percy is the author of  Becoming an Elder: Practicing the Wisdom Arts.Interview Date: 8/3/2019     Tags: Diana Percy, elderhood, eldering, mortality, obituaries, Sir Laurens Van der Post, meaning, Viktor Frankl, friendships, Matthew Fox, Order of the Sacred Earth, Intergenerational vision, volunteering, humor, personal mastery, Personal Transformation

Don Oscar tells us that ritual begets relationship, nature begets purpose, and Love begets life. This gentle shaman has captured the essence of how we can sustain our sacred earth walk by practicing the ritual of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition. This powerful practice can serve to help us build a life-long relationship with the sacred dimensions of life and all our relations.He’s been a popular faculty member at numerous U.S. colleges and universities.  He originated the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of cross-cultural shamanism, and is the founder of the Heart of the Healer Foundation.  His works and programs have been featured on CNN, Univision, A&E and the Discovery Channel. He is the author of Lessons in Courage, Peruvian Shamanic Wisdom for Everyday Life (co-author Bonnie Glass-Coffin) (Rainbow Ridge Publishing 2013) and Healing Light: An Apprenticeship in Peruvian Shamanism, A 6-CD Audio Set (Sounds True 2015)Interview Date: 8/26/2013    Tags: MP3, Oscar Miro-Quesada, sacred reciproc

Lama Palden Drolma  presents the Tibetan meditation practice, Tonglen, in a way that is accessible to Westerners. It combines breath, awareness, imagination, and an energetic transformation process that opens our hearts to reveal and cultivate kindness, love, compassion and wisdom. This practice can be used in our everyday life in an “on-the-spot” meditation.  Lama Palden Drolma is the author of Love on Every Breath: Tonglen Meditation for Transforming Pain into Joy (New World Library 2019) Interview Date: 7/16/2019         Tags: MP3, Lama Palden Drolma, Tonglen, Niguma, Dilgo Khyentse, Chenrezig, three jewels, Buddha, Sanga, Dharma, sin, Matthew Fox, mantra, Kalu Rinpoche, 16th Karmapa, Meditation, Personal Transformation, Buddhism

Here we climb the attic steps and kneel before an old trunk, lift the lid and allow ancient tales to rush out and pierce our hearts and souls with their wisdom. Our guide in this quest is Martin Shaw who invites us to look at folktales not as therapy, not as giving advice but as tributaries that lead us to the bigger river of essential truths that nourish our lives.His books include A Branch from the Lightning Tree: Ecstatic Myth and the Grace in Wildness, (White Cloud Press 2011), Snowy Tower: Parzival and the Wet, Black Branch of Language (White Cloud Press 2014), Scatterlings: Getting Claimed in the Age of Amnesia (White Cloud 2016) and The Night Wages: Bidden or Unbidden Initiations Come, (Cista Mystica Press 2019). Interview Date: 6/4/2019        Tags: MP3, Martin Shaw, Captain Beefheart, Robert Bly, Odyssey, Ulysses, Nostos (returning home), longing, Psyche and Eros, Medusa, Charles Eisenstein, Mythology, Philosophy

Having had two spinal surgeries and dealing with his own chronic pain issues, Dr. Hanscom describes three causes of pain: structural, soft tissue, and fired up neurological brain pathways. He’s developed a program that lessens the need for spinal surgery. It offers a way to cope with pain and the anxiety, depression and anger that accompany it. Hanscom is the author of Back in Control: A Spine Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain (Vertus Press 2017)Interview Date: 4/13/2013       Tags: MP3, David Hanscom, chronic pain, back pain, surgery, DOCC, Defined Organized Comprehensive Care. Mind/Body Syndrome, sleep, stress, anxiety, anger, neurological pathways, Hoffman Institute, attitude, isolation, socially isolated, book Feeling Good by David Burns, anxiety disorder, writing, spine fusions, spine surgery, degenerative disc disease, meditation, habits, Health & Healing, Writing, Self Help, Meditation, Science

Murray inspires us to take our mindfulness practice into our garden, whether it be in pots on our patio or plots in our backyards. You’ll want to learn the language of the land, understand the wisdom of the weeds, and home in on the blessings of compost with this sweet conversation. Hear her tale of her blindfolded walkabout in the New Zealand bush. She is the author of: Mindfulness in the Garden: Zen Tools for Digging In the Dirt (Parallax Press 2012) Interview Date: 1/12/2013       Tags: Zachiah Murray, mindfulness, garden, gardening, walkabout, New Zealand Bush, walking meditation, landscape gardening, nature, gardening, Thich Nhat Hanh, weeding, gathas, anger, forgiveness, watering, pests in the garden, hand watering the garden, when seeds don’t grow, challenges, conflict, frustration, native plants, pruning, trees, compost, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Self Help, Spirituality, Meditation, Ecology/Nature/Environment

Here Houston takes us on a whirlwind tour of the authentic American myth of the Wizard of Oz. She answers the question of what it means to have a brain, a heart, and to act with courage. Using the characters of the scarecrow, tin man, lion, and Dorothy, Houston inspires us to follow our deep yearning in order to develop and contribute to a better world with our full human capacities. She’s the author of nearly thirty books, including A Mythic Life (HarperSanFrancisco 1996), A Passion for the Possible (HarperSanFrancisco 1997) and The Wizard of Us: Transformational Lessons From Oz (Beyond Words 2012)Interview Date: 12/10/2012     Tags: allies, archetype, brain, creativity, extended families, field of poppies, Glenda the good witch of the north, gross happiness index, human potential movement, it takes a village, Jean Houston Ph.D., Frank Baum, myth, neuroplasticity, rainbow, Renaissance, social artistry, social artists, the arts, the scarecrow, thinking heart, Wizard of Oz, yellow brick road, My

Evolution builds on what came before using it as a platform to transcend to a new level of complexity. McIntosh points out that we need not be repulsed by the values of either traditionalism or modernism. He encourages us to reclaim the best of earlier values and to include them in a higher level. He is the author of Integral Consciousness: The Future of Evolution (Paragon House 2011), Evolution's Purpose: An Integral Interpretation of the Scientific Story of Our Origins (Select Books 2012) and The Presence of the Infinite: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness (Quest 2015)Interview Date: 9/18/2012   Tags: agency, cosmological evolution, dialectic spiral, emergence, evolution, human consciousness, modern worldview, Paul Ray, physics, polarized culture, Post-modern worldview, purpose, social structures, Steve McIntosh, the Big Bang, The third Big Bang, traditional worldview, History, Philosophy / Psychology, Science, Social Change / Politics, Spirituality

Even though it may seem like the end of things, Meade reminds us there are always beginnings embedded in the endings. He takes us on a mythological journey that tips the world towards renewal and says, “Why not find our own thread even in the midst of uncertainty and pain, and learn how to weave and create?”Meade's many books include The Genius Myth (GreenfirePress 2016), Why the World Doesn’t End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss (GreenfirePress 2012), Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2012) , Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World (GreenFire Press 2018)Interview Date: 8/13/2012         Tags: Michael Meade, renewal, recreation, destruction, apocalypse, cosmic cycle, myth, old woman in the cave, creation, destruction, lived time, evolution, devolution, wisdom, thread of eternity, elders, Book of Revelation, revelation of tragedy, innovation, nature, recreation stories, initiation, genius, confidence, courage, games, on-line games, virt

The two sides of the brain have different perspectives of the world and they lead us to make very different choices. Olson’s research shows that we need to blend these two for three-dimensional thinking. He discusses how we can tell when we are functioning from our right brain or our left brain. He’s the author of The Whole-Brain Path to Peace: The Role of Left- and Right-Brain Dominance in the Polarization and Reunification of America (Origin Press 2011)Interview Date: 1/30/2012     Tags: Personal Transformation, Science, Health & Healing, Self Help 

Diana Raab is an expert in journaling. She encourages each of us to make it part of our daily lives. Journaling can clear your mind, improve your mental status, and can help you find your joy. She shares some very specific suggestions about how to write poetry. Raab is an advocate of the healing power of writing and teaches nation-wide workshops and in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She’s an award-winning memoirist and poet. She is the author of many books including Healing with Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey (Loving Healing Press 2010), Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal (Beaufort Books 2007), Writers and Their Notebooks (editor) (University of South Carolina Press 2010), Writers on the Edge: 22 Writers Speak About Addiction and Dependency (co-editor with James Brown) (Modern History Press 2012), Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life (Loving Healing Press 2017).Interview Date: 3/22/2012.  Tags: Diana Raab, addict

In working with people in the helping professions who are most in danger of burnout or traumatic stress, Wicks has made many discoveries on how we can live our fleeting days with meaning, peace, compassion, and contentment. His reflections include many unforgettable stories that will live in your heart for years to come.  Robert J. Wicks, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and serves as a professor in the graduate programs in pastoral counseling at Loyola University, Maryland.  In 1994, he was responsible for the psychological debriefing of relief workers evacuated from Rwanda during their bloody civil war. In 2006, he delivered a presentation on self-care to health care professionals responsible for Iraqi war veterans with multiple amputations and severe head injuries at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and Walter Reed Army Hospital. He's the author of many books including Riding the Dragon: 10 Lessons for Inner Strength in Challenging Times (Sorin Books 2012), Bounce: Living t

Ghareman describes the dilemma of women today who are especially culturally rewarded to say yes to most every request made of them. Most of us have dozens of stories about how we self-sabotage ourselves instead of building a more balanced life.. How can we say a soft but effective no? What are some skillful ways for us to move from stress to contentment? What is true frugality?  Azarm Gharman, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist, and holds advanced degrees in chemistry and business administration, and has conducted many professional training workshops. She is the author of Longing for a Land: A Persian Woman’s Story of Individuation (Mazda Connections 2005) and Six Life Secrets of Content Women: A Guide for Emotional Self-Care (Mazda Connections 2010)Interview Date: 6/7/2011  Tags: Azarm Ghareman, frugal, frugality, Iran, Persia, Self-care, self care, time, wellness, inner critic, archetypes, witch, fairygodmother, fairy godmother, gratitude, grief, mourning, emotional, first aid, Womens' Stud

Huebl describes two competencies that can improve the art of living. The first one is silence so we may know ourselves more intimately. The second one is movement: voluntarily letting go of the old version of ourselves and moving with the ever changing flow of life. This leads to a highly innovative and creative life. Thomas Huebl is a spiritual teacher and workshop presenter who has dedicated his life to the task of exploring consciousness and supporting people worldwide in this exploration. He founded The Celebrate Life Festival and The Academy of Inner Science. He resides in Germany. He is the author of The Power of We: Awakening in the Relational Field (CD) (Sounds True 2014)Interview Date: 4/1/2012  Tags: Thomas Hübl, Thomas Huebl, transparent communication, competent perception, silence, movement, symptoms of separation, spiritual competency, spiritual intelligence, inner science, education, competency of stillness, competency of movement, intuition, collective patterns of consciousness, consciousn