New Dimensions

Lake offers a frank inquiry into the causes leading to our current global peril and provides a deep well of hope and profound insight. She regales us with many stories of her adventures in nature including taking inner city young people to the desert where, for the first time in their lives, they experienced the full measure of the night sky filled with stars. She is the author of Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature (White Cloud Press 2010) Interview Date: 1/11/2012        Tags: Osprey Orielle Lake, water, climate, change, new narrative, new story, television, TV, nature, stars, deep ecology, children, vision quest, fracking, Thomas Paine, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Indigenous Wisdom, Social Change/Politics

The death of someone close to us can trigger questions such as: What is death? Why do people die? Why did this happen to me? Allen Klein has experienced such a loss and the deeply personal inquiry triggered by his grieving process lead him to see anew the preciousness of life and the therapeutic power of humor. Allen Klein is the former Director of Life and Death Transitions in San Francisco. He's a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. He's the author of many books including The Healing Power of Humor (Tarcher/Putnam 1989), The Courage to Laugh, Change Your Life: A Little Book of Big Ideas (Tarcher 1998), Learning to Laugh When You Feel Like Crying: Embracing Life After Loss (Goodman Beck Publishing 2011) Interview Date: 12/17/2011      Tags: Allen Klein, forgiveness, grief, grieving, hospice, humor, isolation, laughter, letting go, loss, smile, smiling, Death & Dying, Health & Healing, Personal Tra

When Jan was about to quit graduate school her friend and mentor asked her three questions: “Are you eating and drinking moderately? Are you doing something for your physical well-being? Do you have a spiritual practice?” Her answer to all of them was no. She then said to Jan, “Before you quit school take two weeks and get those things under control and call me.”  That put Phillips in pursuit of her spiritual practice, which involves deep listening and resulted in a flood of creative outpouring as her imagination was fueled. This far-ranging conversation ranges from quantum physics to fear, from “erosphere” to “infosynthesis.” Phillips vibrates with enthusiasm and practical advice for our positive, evolutionary future.  Jan Phillips is an award-winning photographer, writer, multimedia artist, and national workshop leader. She is co-founder and Executive Director of the Livingkindness Foundation, a global network for grassroots philanthropists. She is the author of many books and CDs including T

The Greeks have given us a wealth of complex folklore and myths that are full of meaning for our lives. Among them are the stories of the Goddess Artemis and her human counterpart, Atalanta. They give us clues as to how to navigate the zig-zags of life. While demonstrating that life never unfolds in a straight line, the Greek myths give us inspiration to live into our fullness. Bolen declares, “Everybody has setbacks, everybody has suffering, everybody loses and wins at certain times of their lives.” She advises us to not give up; to call on the strengths of the Artemis archetype is to persevere without becoming bitter. Bolen encourages us to persist with what gives our life meaning and purpose.  Bolen is the author of many books, including Goddesses in Every Woman: Powerful Archetypes in Women's Lives (Harper Paperbacks 2004), Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women (Red Wheel/Weiser 2003),The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World--The Essential Guide to Women's Circles

Even though Valentine was beyond busy with a premature baby she said yes to co-founding a global business that partners and builds alliances with women artisans around that world to rewrite their futures through jewelry making and fabric art. Threads Worldwide offers a way for many mutually beneficial partnerships to blossom and share in the wealth. Interview Date: 9/27/2019       Tags: MP3, Kara Valentine, premature baby, Threads Worldwide, next indicated step, anxiety, depression, greater purpose, joy makes life sustainable, fair marketplace, artisan partners, together we rise, trunk shows, Business, Art & Creativity, Social Change/Politics, Personal Transformation, Global Culture, Community, Women’s Studies

Post shares a prophetic dream he had as a teenager that became his life’s guiding force. He shares how Divine Mind is the underlying, ultimate reality that resides both within and without all existence. This deep dialogue is filled with awesome stories to fill your heart with inspiration and wonder. He is the author of Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving (Broadway Books 2008), The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2nd edition 2000) and God and Love on Route 80: The Hidden Mystery of Human Connectedness (Mango 2019)Interview Date: 10/31/2019     Tags: Stephen G Post, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oversoul, nonlocal mind, Dr. Rod Welles, Divine Mind, prophetic dreams, the Blue Angel, Sir John Eccles, Paul Davies, synchronicity, Larry Dossey, ordinary mind, morphic field of love, Alice in Wonderland, Rockwell cover of Post magazine, Golden Rule, Perso

Spring communicates telepathically with Dr. Frances Vaughan about what life is like on the other side of death. They cover subjects such as spirit guides, suicide, who is “God?”, how death is a continuing learning process, can we collaborate with loved ones who have died and do they want to be contacted? This deep dialogue explores these subjects and much more. Cynthia Spring is a media producer and for 20 years was deeply involved in local ecology in the San Francisco Bay area. Her most recent book is a collaboration beyond the veil of death between herself and the late Dr. Francis Vaughan who passed from this life in 2017. Books by Cynthia Spring include: The Wave and The Drop: Wisdom Stories About Death and Afterlife. (Wisdom Circles Publishing 2018)and Seven Questions About Life After Life: Book One (Frances Vaughan)(Wisdom Circles Publishing 2019)Interview Date: 9/30/2019         Tags: MP3, Cynthia Spring, Matthew McKay, Willis Harman, Ketut Liyer, soul, Awakening Intuition, tele

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?” Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology, and student of ritual in traditional cultures. He has scoured the world to bring to us meaningful folk tales that tap into ancestral sources of wisdom and acts as a guide to connect them to the stories we are living today. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation. He distributes regular podcasts and his 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) and Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World (GreenFire Press 2018)Interview Date: 8/13/2012&n

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