New Dimensions

All complex systems share limited randomness, whether it’s human society, ants in an ant colony, cells in a body, there's got to be a limited range of randomness. This randomness in biological life makes us different from machines. Also included is a discussion about how the brain does not create consciousness and consciousness is fundamental in the universe. Neil Theise, M.D. is a practicing pathologist and leading stem-cell researcher as well as an explorer in the nature of consciousness and its relationship to us and the cosmos as revealed in Complexity Theory. Theise is also a senior student of Zen Buddhism at the Village Zendo, in New York City, under the guidance of Roshi Enkyo O’Hara. He is the author of Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being. (Spiegel & Grau 2023) Interview Date: 2/25/2023   Tags: Neil Theise, ant colony, ant colonies, errant ant, quenched disorder, technosphere, liver cells, stem cells, hard problem in science, co

Thomas Merton was an American Catholic writer, mystic, and Trappist monk who died mysteriously in Bangkok, Thailand when he was 53 years old. The gifts he left behind from his short life were immense. He combined deep contemplation with social action. Here Fr. Matthew Fox shares his profound intersection with Merton via Creation Spirituality. Tags: Matthew Fox, Thomas Merton, Michael Toms, activism, Dan Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Karl Marx, Pere Chenu, Saint Augustine, Second Vatican Council, original sin, D.T. Suzuki, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas, prophetic Christian, Augustinian Christian, Dalai Lama, mysticism, Thomas Berry, hermitage, New Grange, spiral, Hildegard of Bingen, Hagia Sophia, Feminine side of god, Doctor of Spirituality DSP, Cosmic Mass, African mass, Spirituality, Religion, Social Change, Politics, History, Ecology, Nature, Environment

Humanity is poised on a threshold that could be described as a global dark night of the soul. This global crisis is not asking us to simply “make things better” or invent new ways of living. It’s demanding that we surrender to a transformation so radical that we become a new variety of the human species. Our assignment is to become sacred activists. Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. was a psychotherapist in private practice and a college professor of psychology and history. Now through her webinars, podcasts, live workshops, books, and articles, as well as one-on-one life coaching, Carolyn is touching the lives of thousands to assist them in deeply adapting and becoming resilient in the face of the unprecedented changes confronting humanity. She works closely with Andrew Harvey for the Institute for Sacred Activism. She is the author of Undaunted: Living Fiercely into Climate Meltdown in an Authoritarian World (Apocryphile Press 2022) and Radical Regeneration: Sacred Activism and the Renewal of the World (co-author A

Horses are valuable teachers and healers. They show us powerful lessons in how to be effective leaders. You'll be surprised by what Resnick reveals about the secrets of how a horse becomes and maintains its leadership of a herd of wild horses. Horses’ extensive language and communication skills are a matter of survival and they do it without words. Carolyn Resnick is the founder of The Resnick Method of Horsemanship and offers many online courses, clinics, retreats, and certification opportunities that create a magical connection with horses using rituals that are innate to the horse. She is a master horse communicator who grew up with horses and spent three summers of her childhood gradually becoming accepted into a community of wild horses, culminating in her ability to ride a lead mare bareback and without a bridle. She is the author of Naked Liberty: Memoirs of My Childhood, Guided by Passion, Educated by Wild Horses (Amigo Publications, Inc. 2005).Interview Date: 10/18/2022   Tags: Carolyn

In this deep dialogue we discuss how the brain selectively filters our perception of reality through our personal histories, our beliefs, habits of mind, and our prejudices. It highlights the evidence that we are living in a “consensual realty” and our senses are reporting back to us only a very small portion of the greater reality. Howard Eisenberg, M.D. is a medical doctor with additional postgraduate training in both psychology and psychiatry. He’s also been awarded a postgraduate degree for his parapsychological research on telepathy. He is the author of Inner Spaces: Parapsychological Exploration of the Mind (Musson Book Co. 1977) and Dream It to Do It: The Science and the Magic—Decoding Reality 2.0 (Syntrek® Inc. 2021).Interview Date: 1/20/2023   Tags: Howard Eisenberg, collective illusion, love, meditation, universal mind, consciousness, Jesus, intention, imagination, the placebo effect, silo thinking, empathy, soul gazing, Philosophy, Meditation, Personal Transformation, Science

Williams tells the story of her initiation by the living land when she was 7 years old. While taking a school trip she ended up alone, in the dark, in Mount Timpanogos Cave. For a brief but powerful moment she felt the beating heart of the mountain. She says, “For the rest of my life I’ve been trying to retrieve that sacred space I felt inside that mountain alone. I have been searching for that moment when you’re part of something so old, so deep, so true.” Take a tour with Williams and find the relevance of our national parks in the 21st century and how these public commons might bring us back home to a united state of humility. It’s Terry Tempest Williams’ hope that we learn what it is to offer our reverence and respect to the closest thing we have to sacred lands.

Most of us are trapped in the stories we tell ourselves. Archetypes, such as are found in the Greek myths, can trigger a story in our brain that helps us notice opportunities, props, and characters that may have been invisible to us. They change what we are noticing and can enhance our narrative intelligence and encourage us to tap into our potential. Carol Pearson, Ph.D. is an expert in depth psychology and transformational leadership as well as archetypal narrative intelligence. She has served as professor at several universities and colleges and also served as president of Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. She was the senior editor of The Inner Edge: A Resource for Enlightened Business Practice. She is the author of such classic works as: The Hero Within (republished, Harper Elixir 2015), Awakening the Heroes Within (Harper Elixir 2015),The Hero and the Outlaw (coauthor Margaret Mark) (McGraw Hill Education 2001), Persephone Rising: Awakening the Heroine Within (Harper Elixir 201

Here we look at the life adventures of a father, husband, writer, corporate marketer, world traveler, and meditation and yoga teacher. We explore the question of whether our search for spiritual fulfillment and creativity has to take a back seat to our livelihood. Bajaj takes a year sabbatical from corporate work every four years and suggests how we can too. Karan Bajaj was born and raised in India, and trained as a Hatha Yoga teacher in the Sivananda ashram in South India. He learned meditation in the Himalayas. He’s been named one of India Today’s Top 35 Under 35. He lives in New York City but soon will be returning to India with his wife and young daughter. He is the author of several novels, including Johnny Gone Down (Harper Collins 2010), Keep off the Grass (Harper Collins, India 2008) and The Yoga of Max’s Discontent (known in India as The Seeker) (Riverhead 2016).Interview Date: 6/23/2016     Tags: Karan Bajaj, habits, routines, yoga, bodhisattva, belief, Buddha, enlightenment, ven

The heart releases its own logic, going beyond our everyday attempts to meet goals and solve problems. Mark Nepo helps us re-kindle the fire of our aliveness, and reminds us that kindness allows us to experience our connection with all things. Prepare to be deepened by his ability to be authentic as he illuminates the wisdom that is available in our own hearts. Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher who, for over three decades, has been teaching in the fields of poetry and spirituality. As a cancer survivor, Mark remains committed to the usefulness of daily inner life. He devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship. He is the author of 18 books including Seven Thousand Ways To Listen: Staying Close To What Is Sacred (Atria 2012), Reduced To Joy (Cleis Press 2013), Inside the Miracle: Enduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness (Sounds True 2015), The One Life We’re Given: Finding the Wisdom That Waits in Your Heart (Atria Books 2016) and The Way Under the Wa

Executives can spend hours in daily meetings to ensure the success of a company. What if that commitment can be applied to your own personal life? May McCarthy says we should consider working with a “Chief Spiritual Officer (CSO)” whose job it is to make our goals a reality. Our part is be clear, be disciplined, pay attention, and act. She has co-founded and grown six successful companies over her thirty-year career, with the largest growing to over $100 million in annual revenues. She is a successful entrepreneur, CEO, angel investor, and philanthropist, and is the author of The Path to Wealth: Seven Spiritual Steps for Financial Abundance (Hierophant Publishing 2015) Interview Date: 7/3/2016 Tags: May McCarthy, Barbara Frederickson, CSO, Chief Spiritual Officer, C-Suite, CFO, CEO, intuition, guidance, prosperity, giving, receiving, daily meeting, opening, meditation, expression, goals, gratitude, law of attraction, doubts, denial statements, gratitude statements, fraud factor, seven steps, ma

The stereotypical man is evolving into a more balanced being, leading to a better relationship with his partner and a better expression of himself. There is a renewed understanding of both male and female qualities, and the need to respect and balance those differences, as men learn to successfully stay on their masculine side while they open their hearts. Arjuna Ardagh is a writer, public speaker, and founder of the Awakening Coaching.  Arjuna Ardagh is the author of many books including The Translucent Revolution (New World Library 2005), Better Than Sex: The Ecstatic Art of Awakening Coaching (Awakening Coaching 2013), Radical Brilliance: The Anatomy of How and Why People Have Original Life-Changing Ideas  (SelfXPress 2018) John Gray, Ph.D. is a leading relationship expert. His unique focus is assisting men and women in understanding, respecting and appreciating their differences. He is the author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (Harper 2012). Gray and Ardagh are co-authors

Here an avid researcher has brought reports of thousands of people who have experienced the phenomenon of alien encounters. When asked if nonhuman intelligence is real Gober says, “There is a lot of research out there suggesting that we are not alone, and this is probably an ancient phenomenon. There are people who do seem to have pretty amazing encounters.” Mark Gober is an avid curator and researcher of scientific papers and books about consciousness, biological processes, psychic phenomena, near-death experiences, and quantum physics. He was a partner at the Sherpa Technology Group in Silicon Valley, California, which advises technology companies on mergers and acquisitions. He has also worked as an investment banker analyst in New York and has been named one of IAM’s strategy 300 (IAM hosts the world’s leading intellectual property strategists). Gober graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University where he wrote his award-winning thesis on Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel Prize-winning “Prospect Theory”

The Covid pandemic is changing our world and changing our lives in ways that we hope will be positive, important, and enduring. The truth is that we will probably derive more pandemic insight from scrutinizing the past than from speculating about the future because no one pandemic is entirely separate from any other. Barbara E. Hort, Ph.D. is a Jungian counselor. She provides consultation and training in the theatrical practice of psychodramaturgy in which she provides material on the psychological dynamics of a play that can be used by performing artists to enhance their storytelling. She is the author of Unholy Hungers: Encountering the Psychic Vampire in Ourselves and Others (Shambhala 1996) and Hollow Crown of Fire: A Discovery of Meaning in the Coronavirus Pandemic and Its Predecessors (White Horse Wordsmithing 2022)Interview Date: 10/18/2022      Tags: Barbara E. Hort, pandemics, Black Death, Justinian, 1918 pandemic, 1918 flu, Shakespeare’s Richard the II, Persephone, abduction,

Vanhoenacker opens our vision to a more expansive landscape. He says, “I get to so see so much of the urban world, in particular, and it's a joy for me to share it as best I can… Travel is a miracle and is something that would have amazed almost all humans who have ever lived to be able to travel the way some of us do now.” Mark Vanhoenacker is a seasoned, long-haul commercial pilot and a brilliant lyrical writer about his journeys as experienced both from the air and on the ground where he chronicles for us some of the planet’s great cities. He is also a regular contributor to The New York Times and a columnist for the Financial Times. Born in Pittsfield, in Western Massachusetts, he trained as a historian and worked in business before starting his flight training in Britain in 2001. He now flies the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from London to cities around the world. He is the author of Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot (Alfred Knopf 2015), How to Land a Plane (The Experiment; Illustrated edition, 2019) and Imagin

What constitutes dying well in a death-phobic culture? Stephen Jenkinson points out that life is a time-limited offer and our “obligation is to obey. Obey doesn’t mean submit; obey means attend to. What is this asking of me now?” There is much to ponder in this dialogue, whether or not you are actively dying.  Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master’s degree in theology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in social work. He was formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor. He has worked extensively with dying people and their families and is a consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and is the subject of the documentary film, Griefwalker. Heis the author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (North Atlantic Books 2015)Date: 3/14/2016   Tags: Stephen Jenkinson, med-tech, death-phobic, death centered care for

This deep dialogue explores what energy medicine is and how it encourages us to inhabit our body as a full participant in co-creating more conscious choices about what kind of relationship we want with our body, mind, and spirit. It offers us tools to help heal, build resilience, and to go beyond merely the healing of illness. Ellen Meredith, Ph.D., is a medical intuitive, energy healer, teacher, and writer. She’s been in practice since 1984 and is an Eden Energy Medicine Advanced Practitioner who served on Donna Eden’s faculty and offers online courses through the Shift Network and other forums. She is the author of Listening in: Dialogues with the Wiser Self (Horse Mountain Press 1994), The Language Your Body Speaks: Self-Healing with Energy Medicine (Donna Eden) (New World Library 2020) and Your Body Will Show You the Way: Energy Medicine for Personal and Global Change (New World Library 2022)Interview Date: 10/28/2022     Tags: Ellen Meredith, speak energy, disembodied councils, yang t

This deep dialogue enlivens the works and words of Jesus to higher levels of inspiration and understanding so needed in these threshold times. Klotz helps us to see the moving nature and luminosity of the teachings of Jesus that are present within us, within our very breath, every day through the Aramaic translations. Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D. is a teacher, scholar, author, and musician, specializing in the native traditions and the translation and interpretation of the ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. His scholarship connects religious studies and psychology. He’s past chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and is active in various international conferences dedicated to peace and spirituality. For more than 40 years he has followed the Sufi path and was a student of the Sufi Murshid Moineddin Jablonski (d.2001) and serves on the advisory board of the International Association of Sufism. His books include Prayers of the Cosmos (HarperOne 2009)

The universe is coming to know itself through us and the story of the universe has direct impact on the story of our personal life. Here we pursue a cosmological story that can unify and guide us into a future flourishing with life and with the power to experience ourselves as a manifestation of 14 billion years of cosmological creativity. Brian Thomas Swimme, Ph.D., is a cosmologist and a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology to graduate students in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. He is a cocreator and host of the Emmy award winning PBS documentary Journey of the Universe. He is the author of Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis 2019), Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era—A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos (HarperOne 1994), The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story (Bear & Company 1984) and Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe (Counterpoi

Amy B. Scher says our internal environment is like the soil that feeds the roots of a tree. “We need to go into the soil of our beings which is who we really are, our soul, our body, our mind, our spirit."

If we had the opportunity to speak to our younger self, what would we say? What wisdom could we give to that younger self about the meaning and purpose of life? What does our experience tell us about why we are here and who we are? This conversation explores these questions and why they may be important to our lives. Jacob Needleman, Ph.D. is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and former director of the Center of the Study of New Religions at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He has also served as a research associate at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. His books include Why Can't We Be Good? (Tarcher 2003), The Heart of Philosophy (Tarcher 2003), Time and the Soul: Where Has All the Meaningful Time Gone -- and Can We Get It Back? (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2003), Lost Christianity (Tarcher 2003), Money and the Meaning of Life (Doubleday 1994), The Wisdom of Love: Toward a Shared Inner Life (Morning Light Press 2