New Dimensions

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, Eleusinian mysteries, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio’s Decameron, John Ronewyk, World War I, Alfred Crosby, AIDS pandemic, bubonic plague, Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus, vaccines, Health & Healing, History, Mythology, Personal Transformation

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 Imagine a City: A Pilot’s Journey Across the Urban World (Alfred Knopf/Penguin Random House, 2022)

Interview Date: 11/4/2022     Tags: Mark Vanhoenacker, piloting, William Stafford, The Way It Is, Pittsfield MA, Brazilia, the color blue, place lag, clouds, Aurora Borealis, solitude, Travel, Philosophy, Writing

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 the dying, euthanasia, failure to thrive, death-phobic culture, Michael Toms dying, the death trade, palliative care, the angel of death, heartbrokenness, sorrow, grief, love, solitude, Brother Blue, Hugh Hill, prayer, Death & Dying, Personal Transformation, Philosophy

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 thinking, binary thinking, yin thinking, empowered yin, inner knowing, streams of energy, nothingness, chakras, sniffer dogs, Donna Eden, water, Personal Transformation, Health & Healing

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 Hidden Gospel (Quest Books 2001), Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus: The Hidden Teachings on Life and Death (Hampton Roads 2022)

 Interview Date: 10/14/2022.  Tags: Neil Douglas-Klotz, Bible, New Testament, Jesus, Yeshua, Semitic languages, ancient Hebrew, Samual L. Lewis, Sufi Sam, Sufism, Dances of Universal Peace, Rabbi Zalman Schachter, Beatitudes, somatics, Miracles of Jesus, Religion, History, Spirituality

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 (Counterpoint 2022). His video series Include Journey of the Universe• (Prime Video 2009) and Canticles to the Cosmos (Sounds True.1995)

Interview Date: 10/18/2022    Tags: Brian Thomas Swimme, cosmosgenesis, primordial intelligence, astronomy, big bang, Copernicus, gravity, spiritual resilience, Ken Feit, Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, Dolores Maro, time development consciousness, Science, Philosophy, Art & Creativity

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 (Counterpoint 2022). His video series Include Journey of the Universe• (Prime Video 2009) and Canticles to the Cosmos (Sounds True.1995)

Interview Date: 10/18/2022    Tags: Brian Thomas Swimme, cosmosgenesis, primordial intelligence, astronomy, big bang, Copernicus, gravity, spiritual resilience, Ken Feit, Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, Dolores Maro, time development consciousness, Science, Philosophy, Art & Creativity

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 2005), What Is God? (Tarcher 2010), Necessary Wisdom (Fearless Books 2013) and An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth (Tarcher 2012)

Interview Date: 6/2/2016    Tags: Jacob Needleman, freedom, ethics, listening, truth, Gurdjieff, essential questions, polarized times, ancient mystical wisdom traditions, Christianity, attention, Denise Levertov poem A Gift, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, Spirituality, Science

Inherited family traumas may be at the core of our inability to succeed in life. Wolynn’s research has shown that unresolved traumatic events in our families can hinder how success flows to us and how well we are able to receive it. Mark Wolynn is the founder and director of The Family Constellation Institute. He has taught at the University of Pittsburgh, the Western Psychiatric Institute, and The California Institute of Integral Studies, in addition to many training centers, clinics, and hospitals. He is the author of It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are And How To End The Cycle (Viking 2016)

Interview Date: 5/14/2016   Tags: Mark Wolynn, family trauma, bridging questions, core language of fear, Rachel Yehuda, PTSD, visualization, core language map, core sentence, genogram, core complaint, neuroplasticity, meditation, Relationships, Psychology, Personal Transformation, Self Help, Health & Healing.