Circle For Original Thinking

When the Buddha was asked “Are you a reincarnation of God?” he replied “No.” “Are you a wizard then?” was the next query and “No” again he said. “So “What are you?” they asked, intent on knowing. He simply replied, "I am awake.” And true enough, Buddha means “the awakened one.” Buddha’s life work was teaching how to awaken. These days, however, there is a backlash against being woke, as if being awake to what is really happening in our country is a bad thing. Many people want to go back to sleep. Can the nation awaken? Does it want to?  

One of today’s guests, Christopher Naughton, has written a new book on this subject titled: America's Next Great Awakening: What the Convergence of Mysticism, Religion, Atheism & Science Means for the Nation. And You. We are also very pleased to be joined by Reverend Nicole Charles who is the recently installed CEO of Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.). Together we will delve deep into what it means to awaken in these turbulent times.

Today’s program was recorded on the premises of the Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., and we are very grateful for the use of their facilities in the production of this episode. 

ABOUT EDGAR CAYCE'S A.R.E.

Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) has been called the "sleeping prophet," the "father of holistic medicine," and the most documented psychic of the 20th century. For more than 40 years of his adult life, Cayce gave psychic "readings" to thousands of seekers while in an unconscious state, diagnosing illnesses and revealing lives lived in the past and prophecies yet to come. Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) organization was founded by Edgar Cayce in 1931, with the purpose of helping people to transform their lives for the better. The mission of the A.R.E. is to create opportunities for profound personal change in body, mind, and spirit through the wisdom found in Edgar Cayce’s work. 

Rev. Dr. Nicole Charles is CEO of Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, and an ordained Interfaith Minister. She holds a doctorate in Interfaith Theology specializing in spirituality and health, and a masters in Integrative Health. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses specializing in Community Health, Integrative Nutrition, and Behavioral Health. Her passion is being in service to others so they may be change-agents in their communities.

Rev. Dr. Charles has concentrated her career in non-profit executive management and higher education institutions. She seeks to forge alliances towards community engagement and capacity building that supports multi-generational participation and action.

Christopher Naughton is a former prosecutor, civil litigation attorney, and multiple Emmy award winning host and executive producer of the constitutionally based The American Law Journal. He has hosted New World Radio, addressing comparative belief systems. He writes on the intersection of history, law, and spirituality for Medium and Substack magazines and lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with Valerie, his beloved partner of over twenty years.

https://www.edgarcayce.org/

https://www.americasnextgreatawakening.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Next-Great-Awakening-Convergence/dp/1646638689

In today’s very special podcast we will re-air a discussion that was originally recorded and produced by our good friends at the East-West Psychology Department of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) for their own program, the East-West Psychology Podcast (https://east-westpsychologypodcast.com/). The discussion itself is an introduction to a set of two conferences to be held at the California Institute of Integral Studies in celebration of “150 Years of Sri Aurobindo, the Pioneer of Integral Consciousness.” The conferences will take place over the course of a week, starting on September 23, 2023 and concluding on September 30. This discussion is hosted by the East-West Psychology Podcast producers, Stephen Julich and Jonathan Kay. In this conversation, Circle for Original Thinking host and current Jean Gebser Society president, Glenn Aparicio Parry is a guest, along with Debashish Banerji, Chairman of the East-West Psychology Department. 

We hope this program will provide our listeners with some background on these very important conferences, and the life and work of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) who was the key figure in the development of a form of spiritual practice he called  “integral yoga,” as well as the life and work of the Swiss philosopher and visionary, Jean Gebser, author of the magnum opus, The Everpresent Origin. 

THE CONFERENCES:

• The first conference, “Sustainability and Contemplative Civilization: The Integral Vision of Sri Aurobindo,” organized by the East-West Psychology Department (EWP) and the Asian Contemplative and Transcultural Studies concentration (ACTS), will engage with the possibilities, problems and potential of a sustainable civilization based on a contemplative praxis of deep relationality and extended identity as implicit in the vision and teaching of Sri Aurobindo and as explicit in the experimental community of Auroville.  
• The second conference, “The Emergence of Integral Consciousness: Jean Gebser, Sri Aurobindo, Carl Jung, Teilhard De Chardin,” organized by the Jean Gebser Society, will address the coming integral age as foreseen by Gebser, Aurobindo, Jung, and Teilhard de Chardin. Each of these visionary thinkers in their own way foresaw the emergence of a new structure of consciousness beyond the limits of rational thought.

Debashish Banerji is a Bengali scholar and Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and the Doshi Professor of Asian Art at CIIS. He is also the Program Chair for the East-West Psychology department. Prior to CIIS, he served as Professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academics at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, CA.

Stephen Julich is currently core faculty in the East-West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies where he teaches classes Jungian Depth Psychology and Western Mysticism, Magic and Esotericism.

Jonathan Kay is a transcultural musician, and is currently a PhD student in the department of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Debashish Banerji.

We wish to again state our very deep gratitude to the people at the East-West Psychology Department and the California Institute of Integral Studies for the critical work that they do every day, and their generosity in sharing the content of this episode with Circle for Original Thinking. 

For more information about the conferences:

https://www.ciis.edu/events/150-years-of-sri-aurobindo-pioneer-of-integral-consciousness

Also please visit:

https://www.ciis.edu/

https://www.ciis.edu/academics/department-east-west-psychology

https://east-westpsychologypodcast.com/

https://gebser.org/

www.jonathankay.ca

The East Indian sage Ramana Maharshi was once asked, “How should we treat others?” He replied, “There are no others.” From the perspective of the sage, the universe is one being. It is for similar reasons that the values of respect, kinship, and love are inseparable in aboriginal culture, as are gratitude, humility, and sacred obligations to original instructions rooted in traditional stories (the Lore). Join us as we share traditional aboriginal stories and wisdom of how to practice respect, kinship, love, and more, from the authors of The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life.

Uncle Paul Gordon is a Ngemba man from northwestern New South Wales, born of Gurulgilu Country, meaning he belongs to the stones. In his story, stones are born, stones have babies, stones grow, stones have spirit, and stones die, like all things do.  His people are stone people. That is where they come from. Paul has spent his life working with Aboriginal communities creating organizations that can help his people achieve improved well-being. He has traveled Country and met with fellow Old Men and share the old stories so that we can take better care of each other and Mother Earth. Because “If we care of the Mother, she will always give us all that we need.

Dr. Paul Callaghan is an Aboriginal man belonging to the land of Worimi people, located on the coast of New South Wales just north of Newcastle. For many years he has held senior executive positions in Aboriginal an non-Aboriginal related service areas, but eventually his desire to focus on community and individual well-being compelled him to start his own business as a consultant. In addition to his consultancy work, Paul is a motivational speaker, storyteller, dancer, and author. Paul is the author of two non-fiction books Iridescence and The Dreaming Path, and has recently created two fictional novels Coincidence and Consequence as part of his PhD program. Paul’s passions are driven by the belief in the power of story to create a better world. 

Native Americans in professional healing professions may creatively incorporate Native ways in their work, but the path is not easy.  The same is true for those coming from a Western background that realize there is something lacking in modern medicine and are attracted to Native ways of healing. Western and Native approaches to healing may seem incompatible—linear-mechanical, biological or genetic causes versus interdependent, community and natural world imbalances—but there is a way to integrate them, to see and walk in two worlds. Not easily and not without pushback perhaps, but there is a way. Our two guests, one Native, one non-Native, have both been powerfully influenced and transformed by Indigenous wisdom and also other ways of knowing and have done the work to integrate and implement a more holistic vision of medicine. Join us as we explore how to integrate healing traditions on the next Circle for Original Thinking podcast.

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine where he trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. He has been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as associate professor of family medicine at the University of New England. He continues to work with aboriginal communities to develop uniquely aboriginal styles of healing and health care for use in those communities. He is the author of Coyote  Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on  what Native culture has to offer the modern world. He has also  written Narrative Medicine, Healing the Mind through the Power of Story among others, and his most recent book is with Barbara Mainguy, Remapping Your Mind: the Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story. Lewis currently works with Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, which serves the five tribes of Maine. You can find his near weekly blog on futurehealth.org 

https://www.mehl-madrona.com/
http://www.coyoteinstitute.info/
Newsletter: Etuaptmumk: The Journal of Two-Eyed Seeing
RSS for Lewis's podcast Howling Coyote: https://anchor.fm/s/68c15710/podcast/rss
 

David Kopacz, MD of Polish, Welsh, and Northern European descent,  works as a psychiatrist in Primary Care Mental Health Integration at Puget Sound Veterans Affairs (VA) in Seattle. He is a National Education Champion with the VA Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation. David is an Assistant Professor at University of Washington and is certified through the American Boards of: Psychiatry & Neurology; Integrative & Holistic Medicine; and Integrative Medicine. He did his training through University of Illinois and has worked in Illinois, Nebraska, Washington state, and New Zealand. David is the author of Re-humanizing Medicine: A Holistic Framework for Transforming Your Self, Your Practice and the Culture of Medicine, and with co-author Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow), Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD; Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality; and Becoming Who You Are: Beautiful Painted Arrow’s Life & Lessons.

https://www.davidkopacz.com/
https://beingfullyhuman.com/
Blog: Becoming Medicine by David Kopacz

EPISODE Part 2:
The renowned physicist and philosopher David Bohm once said, “The great strength of science is that it is rooted in actual experience. The great weakness of contemporary science is that it admits only certain types of experience as legitimate.” Life after death, or the survival of post-mortem consciousness, is one of the areas modern science has tended to shun despite the fact that there is a mountain of evidence that supports it. The volume of evidence is indisputable, from over 1700 solved reincarnation cases, plus countless other examples of out of body experiences, messages received in dreams, and much more, including so-called near death experiences (which are often after clinical death has been noted). 

The evidence is there, so the question becomes: “Why do we not believe it? “ Is it because it upends our current paradigm based on the notion of a fundamentally material universe and consciousness being an epiphenomenon of matter? Or is it because our understanding of time, space, and consciousness is too limited? Our two guests think it is both – and fortunately, Jeffrey Mishlove and Leo Ruickbie, are willing, and able, to stretch the scientific paradigm to a broader vision. Mishlove and Ruickbie are the newly awarded Grand Prize and 3rd place winner of the Robert Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest that asked for hard evidence beyond a reasonable doubt for the existence of the afterlife. Join us as they share some of that evidence with you today, and more, as we explore a new science of life after death.

Here is a link to Jeffrey Mishlove's video channel New Thinking Allowed:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFk448YbGITLnzplK7jwNcw

Jeffrey Mishlove is a licensed clinical psychologist, an accomplished radio and television interviewer, and one of the most erudite and articulate personalities on television. He is the author of an encyclopedic volume of consciousness studies, The Roots of Consciousness.

He is keeping up the flame as host of New Thinking Allowed, an ongoing YouTube based series.

Dr. Mishlove is a past director of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and has served as President of the Intuition Network.

Jeffrey holds the only doctoral diploma in parapsychology to be awarded by an accredited American university (University of California, Berkeley). A revision of his doctoral dissertation, Psi Development Systems, was released in 1988 as a Ballantine paperback. This book evaluates methods purported to train psychic abilities. He is also author of The PK Man.

Jeffrey teaches parapsychology to ministers in training with the Centers for Spiritual Living (formerly the Church of Religious Science) through their Holmes Institute. His avocations include financial forecasting (see his occasional Forecasting Systems newsletters), hiking in the Mojave desert and karaoke.

Dr Leo Ruickbie is a Visiting Fellow in Psychology at the University of Northampton, where he is involved with the Exceptional Experiences and Consciousness Studies Research Group. With a PhD from King’s College, London, on contemporary witchcraft and magic, he has written six books exploring a range of supernatural topics, most recently Angels in the Trenches about Spiritualism, superstition and other paranormal beliefs and experiences during the First World War. In addition, he has contributed almost a hundred articles and presentations in his field. In recognition of this sustained contribution to scholarship, he has been elected a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 2021, he won 3rd prize in the highly competitive essay contest on life after death organized by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies. He is currently editing a two-volume academic series on life after death and will be presenting at this year's conference of the Royal Anthropological Institute on the subject of artificial intelligence.

TWO PART EPISODE:
The renowned physicist and philosopher David Bohm once said, “The great strength of science is that it is rooted in actual experience. The great weakness of contemporary science is that it admits only certain types of experience as legitimate.” Life after death, or the survival of post-mortem consciousness, is one of the areas modern science has tended to shun despite the fact that there is a mountain of evidence that supports it. The volume of evidence is indisputable, from over 1700 solved reincarnation cases, plus countless other examples of out of body experiences, messages received in dreams, and much more, including so-called near death experiences (which are often after clinical death has been noted). 

The evidence is there, so the question becomes: “Why do we not believe it? “ Is it because it upends our current paradigm based on the notion of a fundamentally material universe and consciousness being an epiphenomenon of matter? Or is it because our understanding of time, space, and consciousness is too limited? Our two guests think it is both – and fortunately, Jeffrey Mishlove and Leo Ruickbie, are willing, and able, to stretch the scientific paradigm to a broader vision. Mishlove and Ruickbie are the newly awarded Grand Prize and 3rd place winner of the Robert Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest that asked for hard evidence beyond a reasonable doubt for the existence of the afterlife. Join us as they share some of that evidence with you today, and more, as we explore a new science of life after death.

Here is a link to Jeffrey Mishlove's video channel New Thinking Allowed:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFk448YbGITLnzplK7jwNcw

Jeffrey Mishlove is a licensed clinical psychologist, an accomplished radio and television interviewer, and one of the most erudite and articulate personalities on television. He is the author of an encyclopedic volume of consciousness studies, The Roots of Consciousness.

He is keeping up the flame as host of New Thinking Allowed, an ongoing YouTube based series.

Dr. Mishlove is a past director of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and has served as President of the Intuition Network.

Jeffrey holds the only doctoral diploma in parapsychology to be awarded by an accredited American university (University of California, Berkeley). A revision of his doctoral dissertation, Psi Development Systems, was released in 1988 as a Ballantine paperback. This book evaluates methods purported to train psychic abilities. He is also author of The PK Man.

Jeffrey teaches parapsychology to ministers in training with the Centers for Spiritual Living (formerly the Church of Religious Science) through their Holmes Institute. His avocations include financial forecasting (see his occasional Forecasting Systems newsletters), hiking in the Mojave desert and karaoke.

Dr Leo Ruickbie is a Visiting Fellow in Psychology at the University of Northampton, where he is involved with the Exceptional Experiences and Consciousness Studies Research Group. With a PhD from King’s College, London, on contemporary witchcraft and magic, he has written six books exploring a range of supernatural topics, most recently Angels in the Trenches about Spiritualism, superstition and other paranormal beliefs and experiences during the First World War. In addition, he has contributed almost a hundred articles and presentations in his field. In recognition of this sustained contribution to scholarship, he has been elected a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 2021, he won 3rd prize in the highly competitive essay contest on life after death organized by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies. He is currently editing a two-volume academic series on life after death and will be presenting at this year's conference of the Royal Anthropological Institute on the subject of artificial intelligence.

With the advent of the nuclear age, Western science reached the pinnacle of invention, but lacked a critical understanding of its underlying wisdom or purpose. Carl Jung framed the problem as “modern man in search of a soul.” When the Western mind turned outward, searching for what was missing, it first turned to the East. A trickle of Eastern gurus soon became a flood, and by the late 1960s, all sorts of gurus, roshis, rinpoches, and other teachers were promising some form of mastery of life - if only one followed their path. Many Americans embarked upon this quest for spirituality, mostly in California, and later across the nation. Our guests, Dan Millman and Ron Boyer, were at the forefront of the California movement. They not only embraced Eastern wisdom; they took an active part in remaking Western psychology–at the time mired in psychoanalysis and behaviorism–into a humanistic “third force” of psychology that expanded the discipline to include religion, spirituality, and self-actualization. Along the way, they discovered not only the benefits, but also the pitfalls, of embarking on a spiritual path. This is their story. 

Dan Millman, a former world trampoline champion, Stanford University gymnastics coach, martial arts instructor, and Oberlin college professor, has authored 18 books published in 29 languages. Way of the Peaceful Warrior – after initially modest sales, was republished by New World Library, became a mega-best seller, and was adapted to film in 2006. Dan has traveled widely, teaching in over thirty countries. His most current book is Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit, which is the true story of his spiritual quest. To learn more about his books, events, online courses, and life-purpose calculator, visit  www.PeacefulWarrior.com

Ronald L Boyer, MA, DDIv, a Jungian depth psychologist, protégé and colleague of Dr. Stanley Krippner, helped Stan create the original curriculum model for the Humanistic Psychology Institute (now Saybrook University) back in the early 70s, and went on the become the director of the Sonoma Institute, the first accredited graduate training program in the nation for psychotherapists trained in the humanistic-transpersonal framework. An award-winning poet, author, and screenwriter, Ron is also the director of the Krippner Center for Indigenous Studies and currently a doctoral student in Cultural and Historical Studies of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley.

Marcellus Bear Heart Williams is what I call a living ancestor. A living ancestor is a person whose wisdom has not departed, but instead taken up residence in the hearts of those who loved him, and even perhaps in those that never met him – someone like myself. Living ancestors are not deceased, as in inert or forgotten. Their energy has not been destroyed; their spirit and work in the world is ongoing. Join us as we invite into the conversation the spirit of Bear Heart, his wife, Reginah Waterspirit, and Tim Amsden, the editor of the newly released book on Synergetic Press, The Bear is My Father: The Wisdom of a Muscogee Creek Elder Marcellus Bear Heart Williams, the brilliant companion piece to The Wind is My Mother, that came out in 1996.  

Reginah Waterspirit, co-author of The Bear is My Father, and the wife and medicine helper of Bear Heart, is originally from the Bronx, NY. An artist from birth, she sees all of life as art and has owned and operated numerous businesses, all centered around some form of art.  In 1979 she boarded the Queen Elizabeth the 2nd  ship in New York harbor and crossed the Atlantic Ocean bound for Europe.  After traveling from the Netherlands to the Greek Islands, she ended up in Italy painting in a 14th Century structure inhabited by Machiavelli when he wrote The Prince. 

In the early 1980s she studied Voice Dialogue, helpful in exploring our own personal and transpersonal energies, from the originators of the method: Hal and Sidra Stone. That was the beginning of a life change that led to her meeting Marcellus Bear Heart, of the Muskogee Nation-Creek Tribe, a caretaker of sacred ways. She was 42 years old when she embarked on a brand new, life adventure with Bear Heart,. They worked and travelled together in the United States, Europe, Mexico and Canada for the next 23 years. She went on to become an independent teacher of Voice Dialogue, other psycho-spiritual disciplines, and Art In The Park, a realistic type drawing class for the very young and elderly, that honors our connection with all living things. 

Regina is a member of an earth based community called The Earth Tribe and committed to the transformational process of humans who experience themselves as one of many species, not higher or lower in stature. A dog and animal lover, she lives in Albuquerque with [dog name Rocky?],  who reinforces her connection to the land. 

Tim Amsden was born in Wichita, Kansas, earned a J.D. from the University of Iowa, and worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Kansas City for 25 years, primarily on water quality protection issues. He and now lives with his wife, Lucia, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His writings have appeared in journals and anthologies throughout the US, as well as in Canada, Algeria, Ireland, and Turkey, and his full-length book of poetry, Vanishing Point, was published in 2015. He was editor of and contributor to a book titled The Bear is My Father: Indigenous Wisdom of a Muskogee Creek Medicine Man. that was published in 2021 by Synergetic Press. He is currently finalizing Love Letter to Ghost Land: Living Along an Ancient New Mexico Trail, a portrait of his life with Lucia in Ramah, New Mexico, and the history and deep spirit that permeates that sacred place.

Marcellus Bear Heart Williams was born a full-blooded member of the Muskogee Creek Nation in Okemah, Oklahoma, on April 13th, 1918. One of the last traditionally trained medicine persons of his Tribe, he studied for 14 years under two medicine men, then went on to obtain an undergraduate degree, a divinity degree majoring in Biblical Greek, and an honorary Ph.D. in Humanities. He was a roadman in the Native American Church, an ordained American Baptist Minister, and spoke 14 languages, 13 of them native. He prayed with President Truman, put down prayers with police and firemen at Ground Zero, New York City. served on a variety of national and international panels and boards, and authored two books. His first book, The Wind Is My Mother, was published by Random House in 1996 and has been translated into 14 languages. His second book, co-authored by his medicine helper, Reginah WaterSpirit, was just published by Synergetic Press under the title The Bear is My Father. Although he passed on August 4, 2008, Bear Heart’s energy and open-hearted unconditional love continues to enrich lives around the globe. With his medicine helper Reginah WaterSpirit, his simple message to the world lives on: Everyone is worthy, we are all one Tribe, and it is our responsibility to honor and support the living earth.

Nancy Rhodes: Called "a champion of American Opera" by Ronald Rand, Nancy Rhodes is the long-time Artistic Director of Encompass New Opera Theatre and the librettist for The Theory of Everything, a new opera inspired by physics’ superstring theory of multiple dimensions and alternate universes. At Encompass, she has staged scores of operas, about 70 all told, including Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, Blitzstein’s Regina, Britten’s Phaedra, Evan Mack's Angel of the Amazon, and The Astronaut's Tale at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Nancy staged the world premiere of Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe for San Francisco Opera, and Virgil Thomson’s Lord Byron at Alice Tully Hall, as well as new operas for the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra and Pittsburgh Opera Theatre. Her acclaimed production of Grigori (Gregory) Frid’s opera The Diary of Anne Frank toured Cleveland Opera and was nominated for an Artistic Achievement Award. She has directed operas all over the world, including Stockholm, Finland, Istanbul, and Amsterdam, as well as speaking publicly and conducting workshops in Europe, South America, Russia, among other places. [You might say she is a Rhodes scholar) And 8 years ago, she launched PARADIGM SHIFTS, a Music and Film Festival that brings indigenous cultures, women's wisdom, and social justice/environmental issues in celebration of our planet, oceans, sacred lands, and wildlife.

John David Earnest is a composer who has written for orchestra, chamber ensembles, chorus, solo voice, concert band, opera, and film. In addition to several one-acts operas, his first full-length opera, The Theory of Everything, was commissioned by the Encompass New Opera Theatre, a collaboration with Nancy Rhodes, who wrote the libretto. A longtime resident of New York City, Mr. Earnest has taught music composition both privately and as a visiting professor at Whitman College in Washington, as well as adjunct teaching at Lehman College and Rutgers University.

Roger Jeff Cunningham is a co-founder of Encompass New Opera Theatre.  He has gone on to teach Psychology in college.  Roger created The Dream Table, which meets weekly and allows his students to discuss their night-time dreams and nightmares.  He has a small private practice and continues to assist in the growth and development of Encompass.

To say humanity is living unsustainably is a massive understatement. In the words of Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, humanity is like a jockey, whipping its horse faster and faster to get to the finish line, not realizing that the finish line is a brick wall.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons did not make us change. The ecological movement of the 60s and 70s, ushered in by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, helped awaken us, but not enough. After some modest improvements, the soil, air, and waters remained polluted. The rainforests continued to be cut down at an alarming rate. Temperatures continued to rise, along with the seas. It seemed we were beyond hope for change and now living in the Age of Consequences. Then, a tiny virus did what no social movement had done. It shut everything down. The incessant pressure of human economic activity ground to a halt. Amid the human death toll, the natural world was granted a reprieve. 

In the midst of the pandemic, a police officer kept his foot on George Floyd’s neck, causing him to die, but giving birth to a renewed social justice movement. Social justice and ecological justice are invariably connected; the Floyd murder was a metaphor for what humanity had been doing to Mother Earth. We had been keeping our foot on her neck, paving over the natural world to pursue our short-sighted economic interests. It was Mother Earth that could not breathe. If we did not change, much of the natural world would die.

In this edition of Circle for Original Thinking, we explore how we might learn to live in a different way, renew our relationship with the more-than-human world, honor the wisdom of nature and of our ancestors, and reimagine education to be an agent of change rather than merely a reflection of the current society.

We have never lived through a time exactly like this. But we have lived through crises before. We know from experience that every crisis presents both danger and opportunity. The opportunity now seems clear. We must gather all our resources, the perennial wisdom of the past and the most brilliant minds of the present, to make a course correction. Our guests today are Jim Garrison, current president of  Ubiquity University, and Will Taegel, former dean of Ubiquity. Join us as we address humanity in crisis on the next episode of Circle for Original Thinking.

Dr. Will Taegel walks in two dimensions. One reflects his lifelong connection with the Indigenous Mind/Heart and the other his psychological and scientific research. While both his doctorates concentrate on the synergy of ecopsychology and the matrix of field physics, he counts his shamanic training described in his book Walking With Bears as the most important of his life. Walking With Bears completes a trilogy of books that includes Wild Heart and Mother Tongue; all address a human return to Earth-based consciousness. Will is the former Dean for the Wisdom School of Graduate Studies, Ubiquity University, Austin, Texas. He is an experienced psychotherapist with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry, and holds a Doctor of Ministry focused in Family Systems Therapy and Spirituality from University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. James Garrison is founder and president of Ubiquity University. He originally served as founding president of Wisdom University, which he led from 2005 – 2012, after which it transitioned into Ubiquity. He has spent his entire professional life in executive leadership, including as founder and president of both the Gorbachev Foundation/USA from 1992 – 1995 and State of the World Forum from1995 – 2004 with Mikhail Gorbachev serving as convening chairman. He attended University of Santa Clara for his B.A. in History, Harvard for his Masters in the History of Religion, and Cambridge for his PhD in philosophical theology. He has written seven books, beginning with The Plutonium Culture in 1979 to his current book in writing on Climate Change and the Primordial Mind. He taught regularly throughout his tenure at Wisdom University on Greek philosophy, world history, and the philosophical implications of global warming. He continues to teach at Ubiquity.

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