New Dimensions

Any life-threatening medical diagnosis is a traumatic event and can invoke a complex mix of fear, sorrow, anger and confusion. The capacity to deal with such a trauma both during and after treatment involves a massive amount of energy and courage. Here we explore the emotional healing of survivorship. Cheryl Krauter is the author of Surviving the Storm: A Workbook for Telling Your Cancer StoryTags: Cheryl Krauter, survivor, cancer, deep listening, trauma, Maya Stein, How to Climb a Mountain poem, health advocate, fear, depression, grief, caregivers, tyranny of positive thinking, health support groups, Health & Healing, Personal Transformation

Pevny shares the three phases of coming into elderhood: severance, neutral zone, and reincorporation. We need to sever ourselves from old identities in healthy and honoring ways. Then we enter a neutral zone where the seeds of possibility are gestating. He encourages us to deepen our spirituality so that we can move into reincorporation.Ron Pevny is the founder and director of the Colorado-based Center for Conscious Eldering. He’s a certified Sag-ing® Leader with Sag-ing® International and conducts workshop and retreats across North America. He is the author of Conscious Living, Conscious Aging: Embrace & Savor Your Next Chapter (Atria Paperback 2014)Tags: Ron Pevny, aging, saging, elderhood, eldering, elders, Stephen Foster, Meredith Little, vulnerability, fear, rite of passage, isolation, inner journey, inner guidance, cohousing, elder wisdom circles, Saging International, R. Buckminster Fuller, Bucky Fuller, Joseph Campbell, Jack Williamson, Intergenerational Writing, Patricia Sun, gratitude, grace, ri

Emerson’s transformational and prescient wisdom addresses the current and pressing needs of the world today. He encourages us to pay attention to our angle of vision because it is the first step toward self-awareness and will aid us in separating truth from falsehood. He guides us with inclusive thinking rather than the limitations of binary, either/or thinking.Mark Matousek is a teacher, spiritual seeker and award-winning author of many books. He leads transformative workshops, intensives, and guided writing sessions that mentor participants to reach their artistic and personal goals by using writing as a tool for insight, innovation, and clarity of purpose. He’s the founder of the Seekers Forum, an online community for self-inquiry. His books include: Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (Riverhead 2000), The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search for His Lost Father (Riverhead 1997), When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living (Bloomsbury 2009), Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life (Anchor

Humanity is straddling unprecedented, threshold times. This situational crisis is more than climate change. It’s a whole system change. Yet, despite the extreme nature of our situation, we’re also living in a moment of immense possibility. We live in an immense sea of a living universe within a domain of aliveness with new kinds of potentials that are going to emerge. Duane Elgin, Ph.D.(hon) is a visionary futurist, educator, and Citizen-Voice Activist who received the Goi Pace Award in Japan in recognition of his contributions to a global vision that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture”. Duane is currently the Co-director of the Choosing Earth Project. He is the author of many books including Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (William Morrow 1993), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Harper 2010), The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (Barrett Koehler Publishers 2009), Pro

Johnson suggests by opening to the possibility of wonder from surprising sources, we recognize that, even in the bleakest of times, beauty is possible. Although that beauty can’t permanently replace our losses, our sorrow, and the dire problems we’re facing, it can break through the walls of powerlessness and melt despair. Trebbe Johnson is the founder and director of the global community Radical Joy for Hard Times, and she’s devoted to finding and making beauty in hurt places. She has camped alone in the Arctic wilderness; studied classical Indian dance; worked as an artist’s model, has been a street sweeper in an English village, and is an award-winning multimedia producer. She’s led wilderness rites of passage and contemplative journeys in clear-cut forests, Ground Zero in New York, in EPA’s toxic Superfund sites, the Sahara Desert, and other places. She participates in Global Earth Exchange—bringing people around the world together to go to places they care about that have been damaged or endangered: shar

What if despite aging, injuries, health conditions and illnesses you could not only return to a state of health you enjoyed previously, but even improve on it? Greer explores feelings and thoughts both conscious and unconscious that are intertwined and can influence your physical health. He encourages us to explore our own health story. Carl Greer, Ph.D., Psy.D. is a practicing clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst, and shamanic practitioner. He teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and is on staff at the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being. He is the author of Change The Story of your Health: Using Shamanic and Jungian Techniques for Healing (Findhorn Press 2017) and Change Your Story, Change Your Life: Using Shamanic and Jungian Tools to Achieve Personal Transformation (Findhorn Press 2014)Tags: Carl Greer, energy work, energy medicine, inner healer, changes habits, overeating, dieting, losing weight, personal power and weight, shamanic journeys, rituals, sacred ceremonies, fire ceremony,

Being with a person who is close to death may be difficult and confusing. Oftentimes it is mystifying to discern what they are talking about because their speech pattern can sound nonsensical. Lisa Smartt has done extensive research regarding the words spoken by many at this threshold and she advises us to be open to the experience our loved ones are having.She is a linguist, educator, and poet. She’s founder of The Final Words Project, an ongoing study devoted to collecting and interpreting the mysterious language at the end of lives. She lives in Athens, Georgia, and is the author of Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death (New World Library 2017) Tags: Lisa Smartt, nonsensical speech, paradoxical nonsense, signature metaphors, survival of consciousness, life after death, Raymond Moody, end of life care, Maggie Callanan, Patricia Kelly, coma, Death & Dying, Parapsychology, Paranormal

Humans live in a web of relationships, and true healing is always connected to family, community, and culture. Bedrick tells us that there is no symptom that belongs only to the individual, whether that ailment is emotional, spiritual, physical, social or financial. He gives examples of how symptoms are embedded and woven into all culture.Tags: David Bedrick, process psychology, depth psychology, process oriented psychology, depression, Robin Williams, anti-depressant medication, Maxine Waters, Sioux Nation and Black Hills land, Native Americans, weight, diets, inner critic, Maya Angelou, Judaism, Holocaust, Nagasaki, Hiroshima generation, Nazi Germany, Alzheimer’s, Psychology, Personal Transformation, Self Help, Indigenous Wisdom

Here you’ll learn how to start a circle of your own for honest, safe conversations and cooperation in a divisive world. Hear examples of how to maintain the integrity and mutual support in a circle. Oliver says “You don’t need to go somewhere or pay someone to start your circle. You can do it yourself.” Lauren J Oliver, Ph.D. received her baccalaureate degree from Harvard University and her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from UCLA. She currently provides coaching and organization development consultations for leaders, businesses, organizations, families, and individuals. She was co-founder with Dr. Robert Harrison Simmons of the California nonprofit Support Group Network. She is the author of Circle Culture: Tools for Cooperative Work (Bonnie Burstein) (Circle Culture 2023)Interview Date: 9/21/2023     Tags: Lauren J Oliver, special needs, Peer Counseling Program, circles, circling, Social Change/Politics, Personal Transformation 

Dogs are the best kind of teachers because they teach us just by being themselves. Wilson describes the undiluted love of a dog when we come home after an absence, “You can have a stressful day but having a dog greet you just changes everything.” Dog and cat companions have much to teach us if we take the time to pay attention and open ourselves enough to listen and learn. Hersch Wilson is an organizational consultant, pilot, former professional dancer, newspaper columnist, and 30-year volunteer firefighter-EMT. He is also a consultant who has worked extensively with leadership teams from a variety of organizations including IBM Japan, the US Postal Service, and the CIA, to name a few. He writes a monthly column on dogs for the Santa Fe New Mexican. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Laurie, a daughter, and two dogs, a Great Pyrenees and a Chihuahua-Terrier mix. He is the author of Play to Win!: Choosing Growth Over Fear In Work And Life (coauthor with his late father, Larry Wilson)(Bard Press; Re

Here we explore the legacy of the late Tony Schwartz with his son, Anton. Tony Schwartz created commercials for more than four hundred corporations, five presidential campaigns, and countless social causes. He was hailed as a guru of the newly emerging “electronic media” by Marshall McLuhan. In 2007, the Library of Congress acquired Schwartz’s entire body of work.Tags: Anton Schwartz, Tony Schwartz, media, communications, Folkway Records, advertising, partipulation, Subaru ad, American Cancer Society ad, focus groups, viral media, bots, fake news, life-long learning, Media, Education, History, Social Change/Politics

Poetry, at its best, takes us beyond our analytical minds and lands us in an embodied experience. It helps us meet the despair which inevitably rises up in the darkest moments. Poetry can cut windows and doors in your despair and give you a way to walk back into the world with others. Jane Hirshfield is an award-winning poet, essayist and translator. She's the author of ten books of poetry and two collections of essays. She has edited and co-translated four books presenting the work of world poets from the past. Her books have received the Poetry Center Book Award, the California Book Award, and the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Prize in American Poetry. Her poems appear in a wide range of prestigious outlets. A resident of Northern California, she is a chancellor emerita of the Academy of American Poets. She presents her work at literary and interdisciplinary events worldwide. In 2017, in conjunction with the March for Science in Washington DC, she founded Poets for Science, an interactive exhibit of science

If we are to grasp Willis Barnstone’s greatest contribution to culture over the course of his 87 years, we can focus on his role first and foremost as a poet – a lover of words, both his own and those of others, and on what he believes are sacred words from our earliest written records down to present day mystics and poets. Willis Barnstone is a poet, translator, biblical scholar, memoirist, anthologist, teacher, and painter. He is a former O’Connor Professor of Greek at Colgate University, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, a Guggenheim Fellow, and winner of numerous literary awards, including the Emily Dickinson, Lannon, and W. H. Auden awards. In 2015 he was recipient of the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award. He is translator of the Greek Lyric Poets, a literary historical version of the New Testament, and poets as diverse as Sappho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jorge Luis Borges, Antonio Machado, Wang Wei, and St. John of the Cross.Barnstone’s life’s work includes over

Are we living in a material universe or a simulated one? Are we living in a massive, multiplayer, online, role-playing game where our deeds and quests are being kept track of in the “cloud” like an angel recording our lives? If so, who is running the game? And what is the connection between computer science, video game physics, and the great spiritual traditions? Rizwan Virk (known as Riz) is a successful entrepreneur, a video game pioneer, a venture capitalist, and founder of the start-up accelerator Play Labs @ MIT. His interest and expertise ranges from video games, the metaverse, simulation theory, meditation, consciousness, and the intersection of science, science fiction, religion, and philosophy. He’s a graduate of MIT and Stanford and is currently a faculty associate at Arizona State University. He is the author of Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior (BayView Labs 2013), Startup Myths and Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School (Columbia Business School Publishing 2020

In her prequel to the Earthsong series of novels that take place in Neolithic times, Mary Mackey envisions when the matristic and patriarchal cultures clashed. One culture lived in collaborative partnerships with a communal way of governing. The other was a more warlike and aggressive culture. She shares the research on which she bases her stories.Tags: Mary Mackey, Neolithic history, matristic, matriarchy, matriarchal, goddess worshiping, Marija Gimbutas, empathy, compassion, Neolithic graves, Neanderthal, fairytales, Beowulf, Grendel, oral cultures, troubadours, Linear B, Cumaean Sybil, Leonard Shlain, oral tradition, email, conquistadors, Neolithic ceramics and pottery, Kurgan nomads, publishing, Writing, History, Women’s Studies

How we talk to ourselves sets the tone for every experience in our life. Our voice is a powerful guide in releasing emotions, traumas, and difficult memories. It can be dramatically effective in transforming our lives in meaningful ways. As we start speaking to ourselves out loud with kindness and curiosity, our body will loosen up and speak back to us. Vasavi Kumar is a first generation Indian American, a life coach and licensed therapist who holds degrees in social work and special education from Hofstra and Columbia Universities. She runs the Say It out Loud Safe Haven community for coaches, creatives, and entrepreneurs. She is the author of Say It out Loud: Using the Power of Your Voice to Listen to Your Deepest Thoughts and Courageously Pursue Your Dreams. (New World Library 2023)Interview Date: 7/7/2023    Tags: Vasavi Kumar, trigger points, procrastinating, procrastination, Gabor Maté, curiosity, Personal Transformation

Margaret Renkl inspires us to make an “untidy” garden that will nurture our soul and the natural world. She encourages us to fall in love with the natural companions in our lives: the spiders, the hummingbirds, crickets, and racoons, and all the other species who are living right beside us. When we fall in love with them, we can't help but want to save them. Renkl is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear weekly. She has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards for her writing. She is the founding editor of Chapter 16, a daily literary publication of Humanities Tennessee. A graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina, she now lives in Nashville. She  is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (Milkweed Editions 2019), Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South. (Milkweed Editions 2021) and The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year (Spiegel a

Mark Nepo shares how we can have direct connection to the attending guiding spirit within. He further suggests that we describe three reliable truths which are our personal foundation to return to as we meet the challenges of daily life. Nepo writes about how the net of relationship distributes our suffering. He 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), More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World (Atria Books 2018), Drinking from the River of Light: The Life of Expression (Sounds True 2019), The Book of Soul: 52 Paths to Living What Matters (St. Martin’s Essentials 2020), Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity (St. Martins’ Essentials 2022) and Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resi

Cathy Wild suggests that there is no set formula for the creative process and that it is our natural state, our birthright. She gives advice on the importance of knowing yourself deeply, which sustains the creative process. She also talks about how to cope with resistance and how to remain calm and vulnerable once your gift is presented to the world. She is the author of Wild Ideas: Creativity from the Inside Out (Standing Place Press 2017)Tags: Cathy Wild, highly sensitive people, HSP, creativity, the creative process, body work, PTSD, creative imagination, talk therapy, authenticity, fertile limits, perceptual overload, chaos, chaotic times, overwhelm, resistance, Standing Place, creative spiral, Writing, Art, Creativity, Self Help, Personal Transformation, Writing, Psychology

Orloff says that empaths don’t have the same neurological wiring that other people do and so they tend to absorb things and take on the world’s angst. Her goal is to give people strategies on how to keep empathy open, alive, and growing, while learning how to set very clear boundaries.Tags: Judith Orloff, empaths, intuition, intuitives, highly sensitive people, HSP, Heart meditation, water, eating well, self-care, trust, types of empaths, intuitive empaths, animal empaths, earth empaths, intuitive overload, strengthen inner core, mediumship, empathic teenagers, addiction, overeating, narcissist, energy vampires, energy inventory, victim vampire, no-stop talker vampire, earthing technique, compassion revolution, Health & Healing, Intuition/Psychic, Personal Transformation, Self Help