Living Dialogues

Andy's reference in the program to bringing medicine back in connection with the natural world is both a lead-in to the second dialogue (with Larry Dossey, M.D.) in this free subscription series and fits my own visionary worldview referred to in the course of this program, in which I describe the evolutionary imperative of developing a mature planetary consciousness at this point by: (i) reactivating our indigenous heritage of being embedded in an alive, conscious natural universe, (ii) bringing that reawakened awareness from the "childhood" of the species forward through our individuated, innovate but fragmented, modern mind consciousness (which has sought to empower our human species over and against Mother Nature in an archetypal "adolescent" developmental process), and (iii) integrating both in a higher, mature "third consciousness" planetary in scope. This "third consciousness" as a "Sacred Marriage" of the balanced essence of prior feminine and masculine (indigenous and modern) stages of evolution, the "hoop and the tree", can then engender a new holistic awareness capable of holding together in paradox and harmony both unity consciousness and the infinite diversity of individual manifestations at the same time -- without the either-or polarization of the negative, narcissistic side of the adolescent-like modern mind which have the effect of killing off diversity in the name of growth, creating conflict, ecological and ethnic destruction, enforced "unity" through assertive ideological domination coming from insecurity, etc.

This species-wide evolutionary development trajectory (with different groups and cultures at different stages of adolescent mind at any given time, like older and younger siblings) from adolescent rebellion, attempts at domination, polarization and rejection of the wisdom of Mother Nature, forward to maturity is reminiscent of Mark Twain's remark: "When I was 14, I couldn't believe how ignorant my parents were, and when I turned 21 I was amazed at how much they had learned in seven short years."

Andy Weil and I also dialogue specifically in this program about the Boomer Generation's redefining the nature of aging and "retirement" into something more self-aware and socially conscious as well. I quote the phrase "America the Wise", the title of the widely-acclaimed book by Theodore Roszak (who had written the ground-breaking “Making of a Counter-Culture” about the Boomers in the 60’s), and then I talk about how we cannot create a wisdom civilization without effectively creating a generation of wise elders. Such a generation of wise elders will provide, as I describe in other dialogues, the presently non-existent basis for what Erik Erikson called the "ethical dialogue" between wise elders and youth necessary for the health and very survival of any civilization, what I call the "evolutionary imperative".

In this regard, Andy and I in this first program also dialogue about how "healthy aging" ideas are relevant to people and audiences of all ages, and go beyond the confines of our current youth-obsessed culture to create a balanced and sustainable intergenerational and creative dialogue from teens to nonageneraians and beyond. There is also material here in this first program that will serve the Boomers in very practical ways as they relate to their aging parents.

To order a transcript of this program, or a CD or MP3 of the full one hour dialogue with myself and Andrew Weil (including Part 1 on Dr. Weil’s book Spontaneous Healing), or if you have any questions or comments you’d like to send me, you can contact me at [email protected], or at my website: www.LivingDialogues.com/ContactDuncan. Many thanks again for your attentive deep listening in helping co-create this program. All the best, Duncan.

In this program with Larry Dossey we dialogue about a number of ways not normally associated in our culture with "medicine" or "going to the doctor" that we can use to be and stay healthy, vital, optimistic and curious in our life, including the role of music in healing and our experience of joy. I conclude the dialogue by quoting an intoxicatingly celebratory poem quite a propos of this entitled "The Music We Are" by the 13th century poet Rumi, which begins "Have you heard? Winter is over".

Bridging seemingly very different worlds in space and time, leaping ahead more than eight centuries and spanning all the way around the globe, Rumi is today simultaneously the most-listened to and revered poet in Afghanistan -- where he was born -- and the most-published poet in America, thanks to Coleman Barks' translations and Deepak Chopra's CD of Rumi’s poetry. This amazing phenomenon, as I say in the program, gives us grounds to believe that a new, evolutionary "planetary consciousness" and sensibility is indeed emerging beyond national and ideological differences, and that we are all co-creators and midwives of this emergence as we engage in true dialogue with one another.

This dialogue on The Soul of Rumi is a great embodiment of the experience and value of dialogue, showcasing Rumi's life and poetry as a perspective of timeless wisdom and inspiration. For those unfamiliar with Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet born in Afghanistan who lived most of his life in Turkey, this program will be a great introduction, and a "feast" for the great many around the world already deeply appreciative of his work. In recognition of the worldwide inspiration for transformation created by Rumi in evoking the spirit and experience of unity beyond religious, cultural and ideological boundaries, UNESCO has proclaimed 2007 as “The Year of Rumi”. As noted in my prior dialogue with Larry Dossey, M.D., Rumi has remarkably become today, for example -- 800 years after his birth in 1207 -- simultaneously the most-listened to and revered poet in Afghanistan and the most-published poet in America. His continually growing popularity in the U.S. is due in large part to the incomparable translations by the great American translator and poet, Coleman Barks. This then is a link to the co-creation of a "dialogue consciousness worldview" that Living Dialogues is promoting and holding space for. Because Deepak Chopra has made a CD read by himself and various other well-known individuals of Rumi poetry, this program also serves as a bridge to the next dialogue in our PLM series. To order a complete transcript of this program, or a CD or MP3 of the full 90 minute dialogues with myself and Coleman Barks on “The Soul of Rumi”, or “Rumi: The Book of Love”, or “The Drowned Book: Ecstatic and Earthy Reflections of Bahauddin, the Father of Rumi” – or to order the complete 8 CD set including a one hour Valentine’s Day special on Rumi: The Book of Love, you can contact me at [email protected] or at my website: www.livingdialogues.com.

In this extraordinary, fearlessly intimate and heartful conversation, Judy Collins talks about her family life, the death of her beloved son by suicide, and her refusal to deny or attempt to banish its reality. She beautifully expresses her passionate and learned advocacy of changes to the acculturated attitudes toward suicide that cause prolonged and unnecessary suffering among all those concerned. The openness and depth of this conscious conversation is an example of the power of true dialogue to uniquely illumine both heart and mind. In the course of it and as it comes to a truly transformative and surprising conclusion, deeply revealing observations of hidden and healing patterns come through Duncan and Judy that were not apparent to either of them before the dialogue. It ends with a recording of Judy’s ballad “Wings of Angels” written for her son after his death (see Judy’s bio summary attached).

To order a full transcript of this program, or a CD or MP3 of the complete one hour pair of dialogues with myself and Judy Collins, you can contact me at [email protected] or at my website: www.livingdialogues.com. Many thanks again for your attentive deep listening in helping co-create this program. All the best, Duncan

Dr. Brian Weiss -- a graduate of Columbia University magna cum laude and Yale Medical School -- like other classically trained medical doctors Andrew Weil, Larry Dossey, Deepak Chopra, Stanislav Grof, and others, has a scientific bridging credibility in his pioneering work in the Western understanding of the invisible world in this case, the world of past and future lives. In this rich dialogue, full of references to documented case studies and intimate personal stories from around the globe shared by Brian and Duncan, the clarity and relevance of the reality of past lives and the ability to access future events unfolds with a rare persuasiveness. Whatever your present ideas about past and future lives, you cannot help but be amazed and enriched by this masterful conversation. Your sense of what is real and what the future of our planet may hold for us will not be the same 30 minutes after you begin listening.

As Rupert and I discuss in the this fascinating dialogue, his morphic field theory goes beyond the range of other invisible fields accepted by modern science, such as the field of gravity and electro-magnetic fields, and in my view provides a very useful explanatory framework for quantum phenomena (such as non-locality) observed in our macro everyday world. An oft-quoted example is the hundredth monkey phenomena whereby a monkey on one island begins a cultural innovation, washing his food before eating. Other monkeys on the same island, in monkey see, monkey do fashion, begin imitating the first monkey, and wash their food before eating. At a certain critical mass of such behavior on this first island, monkeys on island 2 out of sight thirty miles away also begin to wash their food before eating.

Dr. Brian Weiss -- a graduate of Columbia University magna cum laude and Yale Medical School -- like other classically trained medical doctors Andrew Weil, Larry Dossey, Deepak Chopra, Stanislav Grof, and others, has a scientific bridging credibility in his pioneering work in the Western understanding of the invisible world in this case, the world of past and future lives. In this rich dialogue, full of references to documented case studies and intimate personal stories from around the globe shared by Brian and Duncan, the clarity and relevance of the reality of past lives and the ability to access future events unfolds with a rare persuasiveness. Whatever your present ideas about past and future lives, you cannot help but be amazed and enriched by this masterful conversation. Your sense of what is real and what the future of our planet may hold for us will not be the same 30 minutes after you begin listening.

Rupert Sheldrake, one of the world’s most innovative thinkers, has revolutionized modern scientific thinking with his morphic field theory, lucidly and cogently summarized for the layman in this dialogue. Here we also understand morphic fields as they relate to our ordinary everyday life and the key role they play in the contemporary planetary revolution in consciousness. This is the central evolutionary drama of our time: the awakening realization, filling out the essential insight known to indigenous and ancient wisdom cultures, that we exist as part of a living, developing universe with its own inherent memory. And in this dialogue we open to the excitement of how each of us can consciously participate in the ongoing co-creation of this alive universe.

From Thomas Berry, author of The Universe Story: Matthew Fox may well be the most creative, the most comprehensive, surely the most challenging religious-spiritual teacher in America. He has the scholarship, the imagination, the courage, the writing skill to fulfill this role at a time when the more official Christian theological traditions are having difficulty in establishing any vital contact with either the spiritual possibilities of the present or with their own most creative spiritual traditions of the past. In this brilliant dialogue relevant in so many ways to the current national and international political landscape and illuminating a way forward, Matthew and Duncan explore the mystical river underlying all the Christian, Hindu, Judaic, Buddhist, Islamic, indigenous and other wells that access that source. In the process, the dialogue covers the role of imagination and creativity, the return of dance and music in experiential awakening in indigenous peoples and rave-inspired spiritual ceremonies such as the cosmic mass, and the deep definition of personal warriorship.

More details on this episode go to http://www.personallifemedia.com/podcasts/living-dialogues/episode009-matthew-fox-one-river-many-wells.html

Deepak Chopra’s transformational The Book of Secrets is a crystalline sharing of the insights and wisdom accumulated over the lifetime of one of the great spiritual thinkers of our time. In this intimate, creative and open dialogue - beginning with a beautiful description of the gift given Deepak by his father in his death that catalyzed the book - Deepak and Duncan explore the secret underlying all of the various revelations: how profound transformation is available to each of us right now, and how its key is to be found in our own life experience. Joining in this dialogue through the immediacy of your deep listening opens the portal. You will feel a shift.

More details on this episode go to http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/living-dialogues/episode010-deepak-chopra-book-of-secrets.html