Dawn of an Era of Well-Being: The Podcast

That which haunts us will always find a way out. The wound will not heal unless given witness. The shadow that follows us is the way in. – Rumi

Deepak Chopra is a veritable one-man institution, with over ninety books to his credit, several of them making the New York Times bestsellers list. He is also fonder of The Chopra Foundation and Chopra Global. We at “Dawn of an Era of Well-Being: The PODCAST” are proud to count Dr. Chopra among the contributors to the book, Dawn of an Era of Wellbeing: New Paths to a Better World by Ervin Laszlo and Frederick Tsao (SelectBooks, ISBN 978-1-59079-515-6) for which he penned both the Foreword and the article, “Human Well-Being and the Pathless Path”. As you will hear, Dr. Laszlo and Dr. Chopra have a long history of collaboration, and similar aims of elevating human consciousness through the vectors of science and spirituality—as does our co-host, Frederick Tsao, from a markedly East-Asian point of view. Our discussion with Deepak will continue an overarching theme across this podcast, of harmonizing such supposed dichotomies—science and spirituality, East and West, etc.—and demonstrating how their very existence is more a matter of perception than of reality. And how a stronger awareness of the perception is part of the path to higher consciousness and the condition of Well-Being. To quote Dr. Chopra from his chapter in Dawn of an Era of Well-Being:  

Morality and spirituality add meaning to human existence, and the one thing human beings cannot tolerate for long isn’t poverty—but a meaningless life. If we cut to the quick, all models for achieving well-being are fatally flawed by using the reducing valve. When infinite possibilities are squeezed down into a few possibilities, advocated for our own good, the price is too high. Instinctively, children rebel when a parent says, “It’s for your own good,” and the same is true when we are faced with formulas for well-being.

Join us today for a very special episode of our podcast as Frederick Tsao, Ervin Laszlo, and our moderator, Alison Goldwyn take a close look at the human condition with the extraordinary Deepak Chopra. 

Deepak Chopra MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a whole health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his latest book, Total Meditation (Harmony Books, September 22, 2020) will help to achieve new dimensions of stress-free living and joyful living. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.” 

www.deepakchopra.com

John Bunzl is a global political activist and businessman. In 2000, he founded the Simultaneous Policy (Simpol) campaign, a way for citizens to use their votes to drive politicians towards global cooperation. It has supporters in over 100 countries and enjoys the support of a growing number of Members of Parliament around the world. He has authored or co-authored a number of books including The Simpol Solution, Monetary Reform – Making it Happen!, People-Centred Global Governance – Making it Happen!, and Global Domestic Politics. He has published numerous articles on global governance in the Journal of Integral Theory & Practice. He has lectured widely, including to The Schumacher Society, The World Trade Organisation, The Lucis Trust, and various universities.

https://simpol.org/who-we-are/who-we-are

Welcome listeners to the debut episode of Season 2 of Dawn of an Era of Well-Being: The Podcast.

On September 8 of 2022, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, passed away peacefully at her residence of Balmoral Castle, thus concluding the longest reign of any British Monarch, and one of the most elongated terms of any leader known to history. The funeral was a tremendous spectacle as British subjects poured to the streets while an estimated 4.1 billion people around the world tuned in to the televised ceremony, an astounding number by any stretch pf the imagination. The French President Emmanuel Macron summed it up in his statement to the people of Britain, “To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was The Queen.” Queen to the World, the death of Queen Elizabeth was very much a global event.

In today’s episode of Dawn of an Era of Well-Being our special guests, Anne Baring and Jude Currivan, share their reflections on Elizabeth’s legacy in a candid and at times quite emotional discussion. We understand of course that the history of the British Empire is deeply problematic in many respects, but our focus here is on the single figure of Elizabeth and her contribution to a tradition that has found significance at a time when the Empire’s twilight has already passed. We will primarily discuss Elizabeth as the embodiment of an archetype, a highly performative role that she used to unify and inspire people across the world with a sense of duty and service to a higher purpose. It was a performance that lasted over seventy years and witnessed the arrivals and departures of fifteen Prime Ministers, and it is not one that will be repeated any time soon, if ever.

Hazel Henderson was a tremendous intellectual force helping us make economic sense out of human connection and advocating for a green agenda to mitigate climate change long before many of us knew what these terms meant. Hazel was also a close friend and collaborator with our program’s co-host, Ervin Laszlo—in fact, she was our first guest on the show. She was also a contributor to Ervin Laszlo and Fred Tsao’s recent book which shares the same title as this podcast, Dawn of an Era of Well-Being. 

Sadly, Hazel departed this world on May 22, 2022, though we can be assured that wherever she may be, the strength of her ideas will continue to drive this planet in the direction peace, love, and sustainability.

In today’s abbreviated episode, our moderator Alison Goldwyn speaks with Ervin as he reflects on Hazel Henderson’s legacy and their friendship. 

Please stay tuned for more episodes of Dawn of an Era of Well-Being: the Podcast. We will be announcing the release of Season Two very soon which will include such guests as Deepak Chopra, Eben Alexander, and Jean Houston. 

Here is a link to the Hazel Henderson episode of Dawn of an Era of Well Being from December 2021:

 https://dawnofanera.transistor.fm/episodes/hazel-henderson

New York Times obituary:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/climate/hazel-henderson-dead.html

Website:

https://hazelhenderson.com/

Today’s conversation with Master Sha is very special for a few reasons. First of all, this will be the last episode of our first season of Dawn of an Era of Well-Being: The Podcast. We thank all of our wonderful listeners for your mindful support and love as we brought you this initial season, and do not be dismayed since we are preparing to bring you another exciting season with more fascinating guests and topical discussion. So stay tuned, season two of Dawn of an Era of Well-Being is coming soon!

Another reason this episode is so special (and unusual) is that it will also be available in video format so that our audience will have the rare chance to witness Master Sha demonstrate his calligraphy on screen. If you wish to view this podcast in its video format, please visit one of the links listed below. 

Of course any opportunity to have an in depth conversation with the Tao Grandmaster, Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha would count as a very special occasion. In addition to Master Sha’s masterful calligraphy demonstration, we will also embark on an absorbing discussion on such matters as connectivity, consciousness, and healing.

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b296sqo7XaY

Master Zhi Gang Sha is a Tao grandmaster, healer, teacher, and author of 30 books, including 11 New York Times bestsellers and several others on the bestseller lists of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon. He has an MD degree in Western medicine from China and is also a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Master Sha has combined the essence of Western medicine with ancient wisdom to create Soul Mind Body Medicine and Tao teachings to help humanity. He is a grandmaster of several Asian arts and in 2002 was named Qigong Master of the Year at the Fourth World Congress on Qigong. With the creation of Tao Calligraphy, he received the highest honors a Chinese calligrapher can receive, being appointed to the position of National Chinese Calligrapher Master as well as Honorable Researcher Professor by the State Ethnic Academy of Painting in Beijing, China.

Master Sha founded the Tao Academy to share Tao wisdom and practices through classes, workshops, retreats, and training programs. He has trained thousands of teachers and practitioners worldwide and taught many students simple but powerful self-healing techniques. Through the Sha Research Foundation, he has sponsored scientific research studies that have shown the benefits of the Tao practices and Tao Calligraphy. For his original contributions, Master Sha was named the Spiritual Innovator of the Year in 2020 by the International Association of Top Professionals. A renowned humanitarian, he founded the Love Peace Harmony Foundation and has received widespread recognition for his service to humanity, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission Award for promoting world peace.

Master Sha received an MD from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1983 and was certified as an acupuncturist and herbalist in 1986 by the World Health Organization’s Institute of International Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Beijing, China, where he taught acupuncture, tai chi, and qi gong to foreign physicians. He also completed a Master’s Degree in Hospital Administration at the University of the Philippines in 1988. While there, word of his skill as an acupuncturist spread and he treated numerous VIPs while also offering a street clinic for the poor. Master Sha and his healing practices have been featured in a public television documentary and are the subject of the full-length film Soul Masters: Dr. Sha and Dr Guo.

Today we have the distinct honor of speaking with the author, political activist, spiritual advisor, and one time US Presidential candidate, Marianne Williamson. You can expect a dynamic conversation as Williamson is rarely one to mince words, nor has she ever been known to flinch at confronting life’s uncomfortable truths. Our interview starts off with a discussion about the necessity to come to terms with an old paradigm as part of the process of entering a new paradigm— and how the “letting go” process is critical to our development as a society. In the course of this we will examine the concept of reparations for past misdeeds of one group against another and how this might impact our spiritual well-being.

Marianne Williamson is a bestselling author, political activist, and spiritual thought leader.

For over three decades Marianne has been a leader in spiritual and religiously progressive circles. She is the author of 14 books, four of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. A quote from the mega-bestseller A Return to Love, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers.

Williamson founded Project Angel Food, a non-profit that has delivered more than 14 million meals to ill and dying homebound patients since 1989. The group was created to help people suffering from the ravages of HIV/AIDS. She has also worked throughout her career on poverty, anti-hunger and racial reconciliation issues. In 2004, she co-founded The Peace Alliance and supports the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace. She ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, and in 2021 she launched MarianneWilliamson.Substack.com.

To our dear audience, as warfare escalates in Ukraine, we are taking a week off in honor of those who have fallen and those who continue to struggle for their lives in a truly terrible sequence of events. These are indeed troubling times and we hope that our podcast helps us in some small way to find light in the darkest hours.

Please rest assured that Dawn of an Era of Well-Being will return next week at the customary time when we will bring as our guest, none other than the author, political activist, spiritual advisor, and one time US Presidential candidate, Marianne Williamson. In the interim, we encourage you to peruse our list of previous episodes as a timeless resource of wisdom and inspiration.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0HEYB-AEAY

Today we are joined for a dynamic conversation with the noted biologist Bruce Lipton whose ground breaking work on the connection between science and spirituality has made him an important voice in the fields of new biology and epigenetics. Dr. Lipton will discuss some of his thoughts on how thoughts and emotional experiences impact the human organism on a cellular level. 

We will also consider the legacy of the human species’ tendency to regard itself as an entity outside of nature when it is imperative that we realize that we are nothing more than a part of the natural world, and that our connection to nature and the cosmos operates on a subatomic level. An understanding of this connection to each other and all of nature is in fact critical to our survival and the outbreak of COVID (like so many events in today’s current events) simultaneously serves as a symptom of our inability to come together as it creates new impediments.  

While this may seem like a grim outlook, Bruce Lipton remains firmly positive and places a great deal of hope in our establishing a New Paradigm to see us through these troubling times.

Apologies in advance for the noise that we experienced on our co-host Fred Tsao’s line during the interview.  

Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., cell biologist and lecturer, is an internationally recognized leader in bridging science and spirit. Bruce was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and later performed groundbreaking stem cell research at Stanford University. He is the best-selling author of The Biology of Belief, Honeymoon Effect, and Spontaneous Evolution, co-authored with Steve Bhaerman. Bruce received the 2009 prestigious Goi Peace Award (Japan) in honor of his scientific contribution to world harmony.

www.brucelipton.com

Our world is entering what may be referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is an era marked by technological advances which manufacture machines that are capable of outperforming human beings in a variety of activities and with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI.), this will include “thinking”. The Fourth Industrial Revolution was ushered in by the Third Industrial Revolution from which we are only now emerging and was characterized by a widespread dissemination of information—steam and electricity were the attributes of the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, respectively. As A.I. becomes more prevalent technology will continue to reshape and revolutionize human life, blurring the distinction between physical, digital, and biological systems and processes. 

Could many of the problems that the world faces today—Social injustice, climate change, pandemics, and so forth—be the result of humankind using the tenets of an old paradigm in an arena where they no longer apply? 

Helping us consider the pros and cons of this new world we are entering, we are joined today by the acclaimed social scientist and economist, Garry Jacobs. Over the course of this fascinating conversation we will also speak of eastern and western perspectives on the individual’s role in the world (Garry resides in India), and an exploration of the concept of “pure thinking”.

Garry Jacobs is an American-born researcher, author and international consultant on economic and social development and business management focusing on strategies to promote full-employment, equitable and sustainable development for all.

He is currently CEO of the World Academy of Art & Science, and co-chairs the Academy’s international working group on new economic theory, and editor of Cadmus Journal. He is also chairman of the Board and CEO of World University Consortium, he leads an effort to evolve a transdisciplinary science of society. As Vice President of Mother’s Service Society, an Indian social science research institute, he developed a strategy to create 100 million jobs and double agricultural productivity in India. He is also Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Institute for Person-Centered Approach, Italy.

As a management consultant, he works on strategies to develop human and social capital and corporate values to promote growth by serving real social needs.

http://worldacademy.org/gl-geneva/team/garry-jacobs/

Today’s discussion starts off with an investigation of storylines and narratives. Are storylines a necessity for the human species, perhaps an element that is intrinsic to our DNA? What role do they serve in furthering our evolutionary progress to a new paradigm, and how often are they at odds with such progress? Do storylines have an expiration date at which they outlive their usefulness and then require a new narrative to take over? Helping us to answer some of these questions we are joined by the renowned author, researcher, and futurist Kingsley Dennis. 

This deeply informative discussion moves on to explore such matters as the price of excessive individualism and the spirit of play.

https://kingsleydennis.com/

Kingsley L. Dennis, PhD, is a sociologist, researcher, and writer. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books including The Phoenix Generation, New Consciousness for a New World, Struggle for Your Mind, After the Car, and the celebrated Dawn of the Akashic Age (with Ervin Laszlo). He is coauthor of the study “New Media for a New Future: The Emerging Digital Landscape for a Planetary Society” produced as part of the Fuji Declaration for the Goi Peace Foundation, in collaboration with the renowned global think tank the Club of Budapest.

Kingsley also runs a self-publishing imprint called Beautiful Traitor Books, and is now writing books for the children’s market. His first children’s book is called Mundus Grundy: Trouble in Grundusland. 

Kingsley currently serves as Director of Publications for the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research.