The New Dimensions Café

Daniel Pinchbeck has been described as a radical futurist. He’s a philosopher and keen cultural observer. He was featured in the 2010 documentary, 2012: Time for Change and host of the talk show, MindShift, on Gaiam TV. He directed the think tank Center for Planetary Culture. His essays and articles have appeared in a vast range of publications, including the New York Times, Esq., Rolling Stone, ArtForum, Dazed and Confused, The Village Voice and many other publications. In 2007, Daniel launched the web magazine Reality Sandwich and co-foundedEvolver.net. Evolver currently includes Evolver Learning Labs, a webinar platform, and The Evolver Network, a nonprofit initiative. Daniel also edited the publishing imprint, Evolver Editions with North Atlantic Books. He is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism(Broadway Books 2003), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (Tarcher/Perigee 2007), and How Soon is Now: From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation (Watkins Publishing 2017).

Tags: Daniel Pinchbeck, imagination, creativity, Wright Brothers, financial capitalism, Rebecca Solnit, Burning Man, sacrifice, collective intention, technology, ecological constraints, CO2, climate change, cheap energy, regenerative society, consumer society, competition, collaboration, space exploration, inner dimensions, psychedelics, Ayahuasca, LSD, DMT, Community, Ecology, Nature, Environment, Philosophy, Social Change, Politics

Cathy Wild is a creativity expert and has developed creative processes for both private and corporate clients. She’s a pioneer in somatic counseling, the expressive arts, and the field of life coaching. She has founded Body-Centered Healing, an experiential process that supports clients on a personal journey of transformation. Her private practice is located in Northern California. She is the author of Wild Ideas: Creativity from the Inside Out (Standing Place Press 2017)

Tags: Cathy Wild, creativity, the creative process, success, intuition, analytical orientation, authenticity, soulful path, Writing, Art, Self Help, Personal Transformation, Writing, Psychology

Judith Orloff, M.D. is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at U.C.L.A., and has been a presenter at medical schools, hospitals, universities, and the American Psychiatric Association. For more than two decades she has helped patients achieve physical and emotional healing through the synthesis of traditional medicine with intuition, energy, and spirituality. She is the author of: The Ecstasy of Surrender: 12 Surprising Ways Letting Go Can Empower Your Life (Harmony books 2014), Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life (Harmony Books 2009), Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Extraordinary Story and Shows You How to Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom (Warner Books 2010), The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People (Sounds True 2017)

Tags: Judith Orloff, empaths, intuition, intuitives, highly sensitive people, HSP, Heart meditation, water, eating well, self-care, trust, types of empaths, intuitive empaths, animal empaths, earth empaths, intuitive overload, strengthen inner core, Health & Healing, Intuition, Psychic, Personal Transformation, Self Help

Larry Brilliant, M.D. is a pioneering physician, visionary technologist, and global philanthropist. He was the first executive director of Google.org, and he currently serves as chair of the Skoll Global Threats Fund. He cofounded the Seva Foundation, whose programs and partners have restored sight to more than four million blind people in dozens of counties. He cofounded one of the first digital social networks, The WELL. He is the author of the memoir: Sometimes Brilliant: The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History (HarperOne 2016)

Tags: Larry Brilliant, eradication of smallpox, India, Doctor America, Girija, WHO, World Health Organization, Nicole Grasset, Bill Foege, hatred, justice, racism, social media, deep listening, Health & Healing, Spirituality, Travel, Community, Global Culture, Peace, Non-Violence, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Social Change, Politics

William Keepin, Ph.D. is a mathematical physicist, environmental scientist, and has been a practitioner on the contemplative path of divine love for over 35 years. He cofounded the Satyana Institute, as well as the Gender Reconciliation International project with his wife, Rev. Cynthia Brix. The Satyana Institute is a nonprofit service and training organization based near Seattle Washington. Together with his wife, Rev. Brix, he conducts trainings, retreats, and workshops nationally and internationally, encouraging individuals, communities and organizations to combine their inner work of the heart with outer service in the world. He is the co-author with his wife, Rev. Cynthia Brix of: Divine Duality: Women Healing Women (Hohm Press 2015). He is the author of: Belonging to God: Spirituality, Science, and a Universal Path of Divine Love (SkyLightPaths Publishing 2016)

Tags: Will Keepin, God, Divine Love, suffering, universal love, spiritual practice, keeping the heart open, mantra, name of God practice, Christ, Krishna, Jesus, Allah, Bishop Tutu, infinite source, religious orthodoxy, guides on spiritual path

Hank Wesselman, Ph.D. (1941-2021) is a respected paleoanthropologist who has worked with noted anthropologists around the world including in Ethiopia investigating the mystery of human origins in the Great Rift Valley. Besides his training and scientific work, he is a shamanic student, practitioner, and teacher, now in the 30th year of his apprenticeship. He lived with his wife Jill in Hawaii. In addition to his scientific publications, his seven books on shamanism include: The Spiritwalker trilogy (Bantam 1996), Awakening to the Spirit World (co-authored with Sandra Ingerman) (Sounds True 2010), he Bowl of Light: Ancestral Wisdom from a Hawaiian Shaman (Sounds True 2011) and The Re-Enchantment: A Shamanic Path to a Life of Wonder (Sounds True 2016).

Interview Date: 10/1/2016 Tags: Hank Wesselman, angels, spirits, evil, master of deception, Hale Makuna, e'epa, psychic vampires, achons, wetiko, goodness, truth, beauty, holodeck, Star Trek, age of the healer, compassion, positive polarity, Religion, Shamanism, Spirituality, Indigenous Wisdom

Karen Casey Ph.D. received her doctorate in philosophy with an emphasis on Native American studies. She’s an accomplished author with over two dozen books and is the 2007 winner of the Johnson Institute American Honors Recovery Award for her contribution to the field of recovery. Karen’s focus as a writer and spiritual teacher is to strengthen our connection to a Higher Power, which is the invisible source of inspiration, guidance, strength, and wisdom available to each of us. Her books include Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women (40th anniversary edition).(Hazeldon 2022), 52 Ways to Live the Course in Miracles: Cultivate a Simpler, Slower, More Loved-Filled Life. (Conari Press 2016) and Let Go Now: Embraced Detachment As a Path to Freedom (Conari Press 2022)

Interview Date: 5/19/2023   Tags: Karen Casey, Higher Power, AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, recovery, presence of God, Course in Miracles, spirituality, creativity, Personal Transformation, Spirituality, Writing

Rupert Spira is a pre-eminent non-dual teacher. At an early age he was deeply interested in the nature of reality. At 17 he learned to meditate and began a 20-year period of study and practice in the classical Advaita Vedanta tradition. During this time he immersed himself in the teachings of P.O. Ouspensky, Krishnamurti, Rumi, Ramana Maharshi, and others until he met his teacher, Francis Lucille, in 1997. There he was introduced to what is known as the Direct Path. Spira lives in the United Kingdom and holds regular meetings and retreats in Europe and the United States. He is the author of many books and audio programs including: Presence, Volume I: The Art of Peace and Happiness and Presence (Sahaja Publications 2016) , Presence, Volume II: The Intimacy of All Experience (Sahaja Publications 2016), The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience (Sahaja Publications 2016)

Tags: Rupert Spira, nondualism, non-dualism, awareness, perception, non-duality, fear, shame, regret, presence, presence of awareness, essential being, essential self, open awareness, beliefs, feelings, sense of separation, sense of separateness, activism, activist, Spirituality, Philosophy, Transformation, Science

Dan Drasin is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and has been a photographer and media producer for more than six decades. He’s also the Operations Manager of New Dimensions and the announcer whose voice you hear on each program. His short 1961 documentary film titled Sunday was widely acknowledged as the first social-protest film of the 1960s and is part of the permanent film collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Since the early 1990s, Drasin has been actively investigating the field of afterlife communication through traditional mental and physical mediumship, as well as modern electronics as featured in his documentary film, Calling Earth. He is the author of A New Science of the Afterlife: Space, Time, and the Consciousness Code (Park Street Press 2023)

Interview Date: 5/5/2023    Tags: Dan Drasin, Materialism, clocklike view of reality, wireless communication, electromagnetic waves, beyond physical reality, NDE, near-death experiences, International Association for Near Death Studies, IANDS, hypnotherapist Michael Newton, between lifetimes, Instrumental Trans-Communication, Suzanne Giesemann, Pim van Lommel M.D., death, consciousness, the problem of language, Parapsychology/Paranormal, Science, Philosophy, Intuition/Psychic

Wes “Scoop” Nisker is a Buddhist meditation teacher, journalist, and author. He is founder and co-editor of the Theravada Buddhist journal, Inquiring Mind, and an affiliate teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. His delightful humor accompanies his philosophy and experience of Buddhist insight meditation. Prior to being a meditation teacher, he was a well-known radio announcer in the San Francisco Bay area who went by the name of "Scoop." Where he was known to say, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” He is the author of Buddha's Nature: A Practical Guide to Discovering Your Place in the Cosmos (Bantam 2000), Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution (Stone Bridge Press 2008), The Essential Crazy Wisdom (Ten Speed Press 2012), The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation (Iro Books 2013) and Being Nature: A Down-to-Earth Guide to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Inner Traditions 2022)

Interview Date: 10/24/2008  Tags: Wes Nisker, Scoop Nisker, Wes “Scoop” Nisker, Crazy Wisdom, Gods, Revolution, Radio, Aging, Baby Boomer, Humor, Storytelling, evolution, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics, Media, Art & Creativity, Buddhism, Community, Education, Personal Transformation, Peace/Non-Violence