Confronting a serious illness requires healing on two levels: the inner spirit and the outer body. Modern western medicine tends to focus on fixing the body as if it is a machine harboring an illness of spirit. But evidence continues to build that true healing actually proceeds outward, from the self to the body, not the other way around. This is the story of Philip Mereton's guest this week, Sara Chetkin, author of The Healing Curve: A Catalyst to Consciousness, (http://www.thehealingcurvebook.com/) who has spent a good part of her life seeking to overcome the physical and emotional pain of scoliosis (lateral curvature of the spine). Her journey has taken her all over the world in search of a cure, from New Zealand to Brazil and Spain. In the end, her physical condition improved, but her greatest lessons concerned her own self and the power of the human spirit.

"I'm spiritual, but not religious." This is the answer an increasing number of people give to the question of whether they practice a form of religion. But what is this new spirituality and what makes it different than the old spirituality? One answer, given by Philip Mereton’s guest, William Bloom (http://www.williambloom.com/), author of the new book, The Power of the New Spirituality (http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-New-Spirituality-Fulfillment/dp/0835609065), is that we all have a natural instinct to connect with the wonder and energy of the universe. Listen in as two survivors of the 1960's discuss lessons learned from that era, as they explore the future of spirituality.

How the mind -- this ephemeral thing that is the source of thought, creativity, and the will -- arises from the gray matter of the brain is among science's deepest mysteries. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness)Philip Mereton's guest this week, W.R. Klemm, Senior Professor of Neuroscience at Texas A&M University and author of the new book, Mental Biology: The New Science of How Brain and Mind Relate, (http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Mental-Biology/WR-Klemm/book_9781616149444.htm) parts company with mainstream neuroscience on this topic. Rather than accept the orthodox view that the mind is simply a passive observer and that free will is an illusion, Professor Klemm presents evidence that the mind is as real as the brain and that free will, and the personal responsibility it entails, actually exists. Listen in as Philip Mereton digs into these issues with the professor, and offers his own view at the end of the show.

No subject so sharply highlights the contrast between science and religion as evolution. Over 150 years ago Darwin (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/151902/Charles-Darwin) wrote that all living things descended from one common ancestor through the process of natural selection (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Natural_selection). Later biologists found a mechanism for evolution in copying errors -- or mutations -- made during the reproductive process. But to stay faithful to the God-less worldview of Darwin, these mutations had to be directionless, random and without a goal. Professor Michael Behe, in his best-selling book, Darwin's Black Box, (http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Black-Box-Biochemical-Challenge/dp/0743290313) argued that the most fundamental elements of living things possess an inherent complexity that cannot be reduced to separate parts that could have arisen simply through random mutations. Rather, things like the cell contain an interlocking machinery strongly suggesting that they were designed, like a mouse-trap or watch, with an end in view. But intelligent design remains an heretical notion in our current scientific worldview. Join Philip Mereton as he talks with Michael Behe over whether intelligent design is science, and perhaps even the future of science.

Media outlets (http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/tech/innovation/big-bang-gravitational-waves/)across the globe have recently reported that a group of physicists, using sophisticated imaging equipment in the south pole, have detected gravity waves that in turn prove the reality of the inflationary big bang. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_%28cosmology%29) So what does this mean? What are gravity waves and how can these waves prove the reality of an inflation scenario that supposedly occurred less than a trillionth of a second after creation? On this show, Philip Mereton and guest, Alexandar Unzicker, author of Bankrupting Physics: How Today’s Top Scientists are Gambling Away Their Credibilit (http://www.amazon.com/Bankrupting-Physics-Scientists-Gambling-Credibility/dp/1137278234)y, take a fresh perspective on this latest cosmological finding, and talk about what it all really means.

The idea of an awakening permeates the world’s spiritual literature. The term “Buddha” itself means, “the awakened one.” Upon this awakening we rise to a higher level of awareness where we come to understand the true power of the world. Kundalini experiences show that awakenings are real. These are events where a person, through mediation, yoga, or otherwise, manages to tap the energy source to being and has an explosion of spiritual energy. When it happens to the well-prepared, a kundalini can lead to transcendence; when it happens by surprise it can lead to freakish experiences and even medical conditions. On this show, Philip Mereton talks with James LeFevour of the Theosophical Society (http://www.theosophical.org/)about what we should know about a kundalini awakening.

A Shaman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism) connects the unseen with the seen; mind with the physical world. Mediating between the two, shamanic wisdom teaches how mastering the self leads to mastery over our lives. In this week's show, Philip Mereton talks with internationally known professor of anthropology, Bonnie Glass-Coffin (http://bonnieglasscoffin.com/), co-author of Lessons in Courage: Peruvian Shamanic Wisdom for Everyday Life (http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Courage-Peruvian-Shamanic-Everyday/dp/193790718X), about how going back to the roots of this ancient religious tradition can benefit both ourselves and our planet.

Cosmologists have declared 96% of the universe missing. Two mysterious things, dark matter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter)and dark energy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy), make up most of what cosmologists believe to be the cosmos. Neither can be seen, leaving 4% consists of things we are familiar with, dirt, stones, water, and stars. On this show, Richard Panek, author of, The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Race to Find the Rest of Reality (http://www.amazon.com/The-Percent-Universe-Discover-Reality/dp/B007K4QADA), joins Philip Mereton in a conversation about how the search for the missing pieces to the universe has become the number one quest in cosmology.

We each live stories; the ones we write and the ones others write for us. Today most of us follow the story of materialism, which tells a tale of separateness; particles separated in matter; stars separated in space; people separated from each other. But another storyline is developing. This is one where we find that separateness -- like the early Indian thinkers said -- is an illusion., we all come from the same source, a dream in action. Listen in as Philip Mereton explores this new story with Carolyn Gervais (http://www.awakeningyou.com/), author of the book, I Dreamed I was Human: Awakening from the Illusion (http://www.amazon.com/Dreamed-Was-Human-Awakening-Illusion/dp/1475973136).

The true aim of science is to understand the world so that we can master it, and make it work for us. This also happens to be the goal of many self-help books, which give instructions for how to access the Source, the subconscious, the unified mind and find the Secret for seeing our intentions fulfilled. Philip Mereton’s guest this week is Michael Samuels, (http://michaelsamuelsbooks.blogspot.com/)author of the book, Just Ask the Universe, (http://www.amazon.com/Just-Ask-Universe-No-Nonsense-Manifesting-ebook/dp/B0060CJ9DQ) which distills the teachings of the founders of the self-help movement into useful and practical tips for coaxing the universe to work for us. And, if these methods work, maybe science itself will have something to learn about the universe.