Sounds of SAND

​“We are not walking through the world; we are interwoven with it. In everything we do, we participate in complexity.”
–Neil Theise

Neil Theise is a professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Through his scientific research, he has been a pioneer of adult stem cell plasticity and the anatomy of the human interstitium. Dr. Theise’s studies in complexity theory have led to interdisciplinary collaborations in fields such as integrative medicine, consciousness studies, and science-religion dialogue.

Neil’s new book, which we discuss on the episode, is Notes on Complexity​

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Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology, who draws from his study of archetypal myths, ancestral wisdom and cross-cultural rituals to interpret our remarkable moment in human history. While many of us are attempting to recognize our own self-terminating patterns and inhabit new ways of being human, Michael helps us to see the stories we are living, and the new stories that are calling us.

He is the author of many books, including The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny, Why the World Doesn’t End and The Water of Life.  He is also the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit organization that initiates innovative projects and unifying events that support and educate at-risk youth, refugees, combat veterans, and communities in need.

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Standing for Collective Liberation

“No one will be free if the others live under occupation. No one will be safe unless everyone is safe.”

In this live SAND Community Gathering (November 2024) Zaya and Maurizio were in discussion with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists Osama lliwat & Rotem Levin who share their personal stories, describe the reality on the ground, and explain their vision for a path toward collective liberation.

Osama lliwat was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Jericho, after his family was displaced in 1967. In the peace world for more than 15 years and the co-founder of Visit Palestine, he has dedicated his life to nonviolent resistance. He has worked with the Sulha Peace Project and Interfaith Encounter Association, appeared in several documentaries including Objector and The Other, and speaks regularly on peacebuilding at organizations and universities around the world.

Rotem Levin was born and raised in Ein Vered. After his military service, he participated in a transformational intensive dialogue program in Germany, where he got to know Palestinians on a personal and intimate level. This instigated a change in perspective on the story he was born and raised with. After this experience, he started organizing similar programs in Aqaba, Jordan, where he offered the experience to other post-military Israelis and to Palestinian and Israeli medical workers. He is a committed activist and doctor by profession.

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Manda Scott is an award-winning novelist and host of the acclaimed Accidental Gods podcast. Best known for the Boudica: Dreaming series, her previous novels have been short-listed for the Orange Prize, the Edgar, Wilbur Smith and Saltire Awards and won the McIllvanney Prize. Her latest novel ANY HUMAN POWER is a Mytho-Political thriller which lays out a Thrutopian road map to a flourishing future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. With degrees in veterinary medicine and a Masters in Regenerative Economics, Manda’s life is oriented towards creating radical new narratives that will pave the way to the total systemic change our culture – and our world – needs.

ANY HUMAN POWER is available for sale on Amazon.

Connect with Manda Scott on Facebook, Bluesky, Goodreads, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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Disentangling Judaism from the Violence of Occupation

“The way to manifest your sacredness is to embody sacredness – to treat all life as sacred.”
– Rabbi Cat Zavis

In this live SAND Community Gathering (October 2024) Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo were in discussion with Rabbi Cat Zavis, a renowned Jewsish teacher, writer, and social justice activist.

They discussed the misuse of Judaism to justify the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Drawing on deep Jewish ethical traditions of justice and compassion, Rabbi Zavis showed how the occupation fundamentally contradicts core Jewish values. We explored the rich history of Jewish opposition to occupation and highlight contemporary movements working to honor Judaism’s ethical mandate, “Never Again” for anyone.

Rabbi Cat Zavis is a passionate shaper of Jewish rituals and services that inspire and draw connections between the spiritual, personal, and political. She is a spiritual social justice activist, attorney, and visionary leader with over 20 years experience in empathic and people-centered leadership and collaboration. A sought after facilitator and trainer in nonviolent communication, prophetic empathy, collaboration, and conflict resolution, she has over 25 years experience working with and helping people understand our shared needs and how to challenge manifestations of othering and build beloved communities of belonging. While co-editor of Tikkun magazine, she wrote articles and helped shape the magazine; as Executive Director of the Network of Spiritual Progressives she has trained over 1000 people in Prophetic Empathy and Revolutionary Love.

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In this episode we present excerpts from the recent conversation (June 2024) as part of SAND’s “Conversations on Palestine” around the premiere of the film Where Olive Trees Weep hosted by the directors of the film and co-founders of SAND, Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo.

You can watch this full conversation and 22 others at Where Olive Trees Weep: 23 Conversations on Palestine. SAND has created a program with leading historians, spiritual teachers, trauma therapists, poets and performers to complement the themes explored in the film and provide a larger historical, cultural and social context to the plight of the Palestinian people

These Black activists and scholars came together to shed light on the intersection anti-Black racism, Israeli apartheid, patriarchal oppression, and predatory capitalism’s interconnected plunder. This panel discussed the coalitional power that blossoms when we recognize our kindred liberatory movements. Their dialogue illustrated how the subjugation of any community reverberates as a threat against the collective freedom and wellbeing of all humanity. Their truth disrupts manufactured divisions and nurtures the global, intergenerational solidarities indispensable for our mutual emancipation.

Faith Gay is an activist and incoming Master’s student at Princeton University with a background in anti-war organizing and congressional advocacy. Her work focuses on democratizing United States foreign policy so that it can be influenced by those most impacted by it, including those outside of Washington. She is a member of Black for Palestine, a collective organizing Black people in the U.S. to leverage their political, economic, and cultural power in support of Palestinian liberation and to end U.S. complicity in Israeli apartheid.

Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart is a Black queer preacher, teacher, strategist, and justice advocate. She is an adjunct professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and in the spring of 2024 completed a two year term as the Government Fellow for Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School. Rev. Naomi also serves as the first-ever Strategic Partnerships Director at Political Research Associates (PRA), a social justice research and strategy center that provides strategic insights and actionable research that identifies, disrupts, and competes with movements and institutions that undermine democracy, justice, and human rights. In 2021, Rev. Naomi founded Salt | Yeast | Light, an organization that develops spaces of spiritual education, disruption, reflection, transformation, and public action. Most recently, she joined the national leadership team of Christians for a Free Palestine.

Imam Adeyinka Mendes is a spiritual counselor, meditation teacher, rites of passage facilitator, author, and Muslim religious leader based in Houston, Texas. He has been a student of the mystical traditions of Islam as well as indigenous and West African spiritual traditions for over 30 years after a life changing journey to Jerusalem at the age of 16. His focus as a teacher is on conveying the wisdom of our ancestors in ways that address the challenges and opportunities of the modern world. He is the founding director of Marhama (Arabic for 'expressing mutual compassion') Village, a community focused on building sustainable institutions through empowering service, prophetic spirituality, traditional knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the arts. He has studied Classical Arabic, Islamic Sciences, sacred meditation, and the science of peace-building with sages and scholars from the United States, Syria, Sudan, Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Egypt, Haiti, Senegal, and The Gambia. He imagines a world in which spiritual seekers from every tradition work together to establish a world of sacred service, compassion, and justice for every life.

(Scheduled, but not present in the recording because of illness)
Pastor Michael McBride is the executive director for LIVE FREE USA, a national organizing and social change network committed to ending the criminalization of people of color, reducing gun violence and transforming the policing and the criminal justice system. He was named by the Center for American Progress as a Top Clergy Leader in 2013 and served on President Obama’s Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Council to address Poverty and Inequality in 2016. He is one of the national leaders in the movement to implement public health gun violence prevention programs, recently featured as one of CNN’s Champions of Change. He is the co-founder of Black Church PAC and the Black Brown Peace Consortium. Pastor McBride serves as the Lead Pastor of The Way Church in Berkeley, CA. He has been a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, the Huffington Post and many other media outlets.

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SAND’s Helpful Resources on Palestine: https://whereolivetreesweep.com/resources/

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Ash Canty (he/him) is a trans masc, afro-indigenous, non-binary Psychic Medium & Death Guide. He support's and walks others in the threshold of their own unique death and dying process. He is led by spirit and his West African Benin, Eastern Band Cherokee, Northern Haudenosaunee and Blackfeet ancestors as well as the natural world in all that he does. In his mediumship gifts he offers powerful evidential mediumship readings & holds ongoing monthly live events, classes & courses for their community and supports them in remembering their own connection with spirit & the multidimensional realities or relation that surround us all.

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In this Community Gathering (October 2024) Zaya and Maurizio were in discussion with Pir Zia Inayat Khan, a renowned spiritual teacher in the Sufi tradition, and explored the practice of turning toward the heart — a fundamental concept in Sufism and many other spiritual paths.

Can we see the heart not just as a physical organ, but as a center of consciousness, wisdom, and divine connection? Will this inner orientation lead us to greater self-awareness, compassion, and spiritual growth?

Drawing from Sufi wisdom and his own experience, Pir Zia offered insights on cultivating a heart-centered approach to life in a modern world that uplifts comfort to ignore suffering, and developing the ability to see where there is pain and hardship in order to bring healing there.

Together, we will explore the question, “How can we harmonize the inward journey with the outward call to stand for justice?”

Pir Zia Inayat Khan, PH.D., is a scholar of religion and teacher of Sufism in the universalist Sufi lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pir Zia is president of the Inayatiyya and founder of Sulūk Academy, a school of Sufi contemplative study and practice. He is author of Immortality: A Traveler’s Guide; Dream Flowers: The Collected Works of Noor Inayat Khan; Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions; and Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity and the Mystical Quest. He is editor of Caravan of Souls: An Introduction to the Sufi Path of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pir Zia divides his time between Richmond, Virginia and Suresnes, France.

https://inayatiyya.org/

Watch the full video version of this event here: https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/turning-toward-the-heart/

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Dr. Kamilah Majied, MSW, PhD, is a contemplative inclusivity and equity consultant, mental health therapist, clinical educator, researcher, and internationally engaged consultant on building inclusivity and equity using meditative practices.

She is the author of Joyfully Just: Black Wisdom and Buddhist Insights for Liberated Living (Sounds True, 2024), and has authored many articles and chapters, including in the second edition of Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy: “Contemplative Practices for Assessing and Eliminating Racism in Psychotherapy.”

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In this SAND Community Gathering (September 2024) Zaya and Maurizio sat down with Jess Semaan, poet, psychotherapist and facilitator to explore the intersection of poetry and grief in the context of genocide. They drew from her research on genocide, as well as her personal and professional experiences, Jess tended to our psycho-spiritual profound sorrow and loss in this time.

By giving voice to the unspeakable and providing a means of bearing witness to the stories of those impacted by the trauma of large-scale atrocities, we are making space for individual and collective healing.

Poetry helps us navigate the complex terrain of grief, injustice, and human suffering. Come and honor the resilience of communities that have endured such immense trauma.

Jess Semaan is a queer Lebanese poet, psychotherapist, group facilitator and speaker. She researches, writes and speaks on subjects of healing from complex trauma, immigration, war and belonging.  Her first poetry book Child of the Moon was published by Andrews McMeel and sold over 14,000 copies. Her second book Your Therapist is Depressed Too came out in December 2023. She immigrated to the United States from Beirut.

She has an MBA from Stanford and an M.A. in counseling Psychology from CIIS.

She identifies as SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa), with grandparents from Syria, Palestine and Mount Lebanon and resides on Ohlone land (Oakland, California), with her partner Berk and their two cats.

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