New Dimensions

Every living system goes through a life cycle: birth, creativity, flowering, harvesting, and then death. Wheatley points out that we are at the end of a cycle and she warns us, “It’s important that we understand where we are in the pattern of collapse and not to throw up our hands in despair . . .but to understand, now that this is happening, who do I choose to be?” Her 's books include: Leadership and the New Science  (Berrett-Kohler 1998), Perseverance (Berrett-Kohler 2010),Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope in the Future (Berrett-Kohler 2009), So Far from Home: Lost and Found In Our Brave New World (Barrett-Kohler 2012) and Who Do We Choose To Be: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity (Berrett-Kohler 2017)
Tags: Margaret J. Wheatley, Meg Wheatley, Sir John Glubb, materialism, consumerism, General Gordon R. Sullivan, After action review, compassion, Joanna Macy, Shambhala warriors, activistm, Theodore Roosevelt, Order of the Sacred Earth, Chogyam Trungpa, John Daido Loori Zen Roshi, General William T. Sherman, Dalai Lama, Vaclav Havel, hope, Community, Community, Meditation, Philosophy, Buddhism, Social Change/Politics

Jennings is both a Buddhist practitioner and a psychologist. Here she talks about when it’s appropriate to bring our psychological struggles to our Buddhist teacher and when it is appropriate to bring them to a therapist, and the general differences between them. She also reveals the importance of the Buddhist concept of “friendly curiosity.” Her books include Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism (Wisdom Publications 2011) and To Heal a Wounded Heart: The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action (Shambhala 2017)
Tags: Pilar Jennings, psychotherapy, Tibetan Sakya practice, enlightenment, friendly curiosity, 9/11 New York, Muir woods, nature, mother, Kisa Gotami, Buddhism, Community, Meditation, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion

What are the four purposes of life and what are the twelve required core courses in life’s school? These questions are highlighted in this edition of New Dimensions with Dan Millman. He is the author of many books including  Way of the Peaceful Warrior (H.J. Kramer 1994) (adapted into a major film starring Nick Nolte and Amy Smart) and The Four Purposes of Life: Finding Meaning and Direction in a Changing World (New World Library 2011)
Tags: Arising moment, Career calling, Dan Millman, Four Purposes, gymnastics, life path, Personal Growth, Philosophy/Psychology, Self-Help, Work/Livelihood

Dr. Vallee does not come to conclusions about UFOs or what they may be. However, what his research shows is that reports of such phenomena have been occurring since antiquity. Jacques Vallee, Ph.D. is one of today's most widely respected researchers of unexplained aerial phenomena. He earned a Masters Degree in Astrophysics while living in France and holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University. His life experience was the model portrayed by François Truffaut in the Steven Spielberg award winning film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He is the author of numerous books, including Passport to Magonia, his seminal work, and Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times (co-author with Chris Aubeck) (Tarcher/Penguin 2010)

As the 1950s came to a close, a new era of social, spiritual, sexual, political and psychological revolution was beginning. Here, in this provocative dialogue, you will meet some of the wild characters, who made the 1960s the most memorable decade of the 20th century. Lattin says, "[The] big question at the time was: are these experiences people are having the same as a mystical experience or religious experience? People would report the same kind of things, like a sense of wonder, awe, transcendence, and empathy. . . The important question is what do you do with the experience, and how does it affect the way you live your life? Are you living your life with more awareness and compassion after the experience?" This engrossing program tells the story of how it all began. You will be entertained and perhaps even shocked. Don Lattin is a journalist covering alternative and mainstream religious movements. His work has appeared in dozens of U.S. magazine and newspapers. He's been a commentator on many T.V. news programs. He is the author of many books including Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge (HarperOne 2008), Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today (Harper Collins 2004), Shopping for Faith: American Religion in the New Millennium (coauthor) (Jossey-Bass 2002), The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America (HarperOne 2010).

For decades spiritual and self help literature has encouraged people to go within to heal old wounds, nourish egos and coddle one's inner child. Myss says, "I think we’ve developed an idea that approaching God could be done any way we want and that it doesn't require prayer, reflection, or contemplation. We've substituted therapy for devotion." She points out that the intellect is not a spiritual practice. In order to live a life of meaning we must go beyond a life of acquisitions and move into a life of devotion. Her own path has taken her deeply into the world of Saint Teresa of Avila, the 16th Century Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic Saint whose profound writings continue to have an impact on any serious seeker. Myss exhorts and inspires us to participate in the search for this ultimate spiritual reality as expressed by Teresa of Avila.  Caroline Myss’ books include Invisible Acts of Power: Channeling Grace in Your Everyday Life (Free Press 2004), Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (Harmony 2001), Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (Harmony 1997), Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (Harmony 1996), Archetypes: Who Are You? (Hay House 2013) and Energy Anatomy: The Science of Personal Power, Spirituality, and Health (CD set) (Sounds True 2001)
Tags: Saint Teresa of Avila, mystical experience, therapy, devotion, The 60’s, sacred contracts, career, grace

Jane Hirshfield points out that many people turn to poetry at great life transitions. She says, “You know when people fall in love, or when they lose love, or lose someone they loved, that is when they want a poem. When they get married, they want a poem. These great transitions are larger than the normal, ordinary consciousness. And what poems do is give us a vocabulary for understanding things, which isn’t available through any other use of language.” Her poetry alludes to far ranging subjects such as time, nature, and even science. Here she reads some of her poems, and talks of the inspiration from which they come, and why they speak to us and move us beyond our rational minds and our busy intellect through their metaphors and images. She shares with us why poetry, and other art forms like music, speak so deeply to the heart and soul. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms) Her poetry books include The October Palace: Poems (HarperCollins 1994), The Lives of the Heart: Poems (HarperCollins 1997), Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women (HarperCollins 1994), Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (Perennial 1998), After: Poems (HarperCollins 2006), Given Sugar, Given Salt: Poems (HarperCollins 2001), Come, Thief: Poems (Knopf 2011), Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World (Alfred A. Knopf 2015), The Beauty: Poems (Alfred A. Knopf 2015)

Masters illustrates what he means by spiritual bypassing and the addiction to being positive. He describes how our resistance to pain makes the pain worse and suggests we soften around the pain, which can begin to remove the drama around our suffering. He clarifies how we can develop the skill to create some room around pain. His books include: Divine Dynamite: Entering Awakening's Heartland (Tehmenos Press 2006), Transformation Through Intimacy: The Journey Toward Mature Monogamy (Tehmenos Press 2007), Meeting the Dragon: Ending Our Suffering by Entering Our Pain (Tehmenos Press 2008), Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us From What Really Matters (North Atlantic Books 2010)
Tags: Robert Masters, Spiritual bypassing, Spiritual by-passing, True spirituality, Authentic spirituality, Metaphysical, valium, Anger, Blind compassion, Fierce compassion, Shadow work, Boundaries, Psychotherapy, Magical thinking, Spirituality, Health & Healing, Intuition/Psychic, Meditation, Personal Transformation

People are living longer but this new longevity is not equivalent to an extension of old age or years added on at the end of life. Bateson describes a whole new stage of aging: Adulthood II. It is a time endowed with wisdom, health, and energy. It is a time to become the needed visionaries society is calling for.  She is the author of many books and papers, including Composing a Life (Grove Press 2001), With a Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson (Harper Perennial 1994), Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery (Steerforth 2010). Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom (Knopf 2010)
Tags: Mary Catherine Bateson, Aging, Adulthood II, ageism, friendship, post-reproductive women, intergenerational relationships, longevity, Social Change/Politics, Community, Family/Community, Philosophy