The New Dimensions Café

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. He  is the author of: Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (North Atlantic Books 2015)

Tags: Stephen Jenkinson, writing a letter to your mother, encounter with dying, heartbrokenness, Brother Blue, Hugh Hill, initiation, Death & Dying, Indigenous Wisdom

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, energy medicine, language of chemistry, language of subtle energy, Donna, Eden, quantum physics, exchange of consciousness, dialoguing with our bodies, energy dialogue, energy conversation, naturopathic medicine, muscle testing, breath, posture, color therapy, wellness, Personal Transformation, Health & Healing

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, Aramaic Christians, chanting Jesus’ words, the perfection of ripeness, breath, John, In the Beginning was the Word, Christian Mysticism, Gnosticism, wisdom coming to flesh, yin/yang, both/and, God, the Cosmic Mystery, Religion, History, Spirituality

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, cosmologist, cosmology, cosmic evolution, bacteria, butterfly, cocoon, imaginal cells, quanta, elementary particles, star stuff, protons, neutrons, electrons, Thomas Berry, Divine Intelligence, carbon atoms from the stars, Science, Philosophy, Arts & Creativity, Spirituality

Amy B. Scher is an energy therapist who uses energy therapy techniques to help those who are experiencing illness and those in need of emotional healing. She is the author of How to Heal Yourself When No One Else Can: A Total Self-Healing Approach for Mind, Body & Spirit (Llewellyn Publications 2016)

Tags: Amy B. Scher, subtle bodies, allopathic medicine, emotions, energy therapy techniques, anger, thymus gland, immune system, stress, tapping your chest, unconscious emotions, EFT, Emotional Freedom technique, meridians, energy pathways, Lyme disease, Health & Healing 

Father Francis Tiso holds a Master of Divinity degree from Have University, and a doctorate from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary where his specialization was Buddhist studies. He was Associated Director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops from 2004 to 2009, where he served as liaison to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Sikhs, and Traditions religions as well as the Reformed confessions.He is the author of: Liberation in One Lifetime (North Atlantic Books 2014) and Rainbow body and Resurrection: Spiritual Attainment, the Dissolution of the Material Body, and the Case of Khenpo A Chö (North Atlantic Books 2016)

Tags: Francis Tiso, Interreligious dialogues, Berlin Wall, refugee migration, meaningful work, religious education, diversity, Eco diversity, religious diversity, Religion, Spirituality, 

Terry Tempest Williams is a naturalist, environmentalist, and award-winning author. She is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Fellowship in creative nonfiction and the 1997 Guggenheim Fellowship, and served as naturalist-in-residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History. In 2014, on the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Ms. Williams received the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award honoring a distinguished record of leadership in American conservation. She divides her time between Castle Valley, Utah, and Moose, Wyoming. She is the author of many books including Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (Pantheon 1991), Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert (Vintage Books 2002), An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field (Vintage Books 1995) , Leap (Vintage 2001), The Open Space of Democracy (The Orion Society 2004), Finding Beauty in a Broken World (Pantheon 2008), When Women Were Birds (Sarah Crichton Books: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2012), The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks (Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2016) and Erosion: Essays of Undoing (Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019)

 Interview Date: 5/5/2012    Tags: MP3, Terry Tempest Williams, journaling, her mother's journals, grief, Mormon women write, full silence, women's friendships, matriarchal line, Women’s Studies, Writing

John Crowley is co-founder of Cool City Petaluma 2030 and co-owner of the Aqus Café in Petaluma, California. He’s a social instigator and champion connection-maker. It was his intention in starting Aqus Café to recreate an Irish pub atmosphere with a focus on social dynamics that create opportunities and support the connection of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits by bringing them together with their various interests, talents, and energy. He believes that social capital determines the health and happiness of a community and that as individuals of a town are provided more opportunities to interact and connect the entire town benefits.

Interview Date: 8/19/2022    Tags: John Crowley, social capital, social investment, Cool Petaluma, civic engagement, carbon neutral, cool city challenge, challenge grant, carbon footprint, disaster preparedness, meeting neighbors, support for block leaders, Community, Social Change/Politics

Peter Fiekowsky is an MIT educated physicist and engineer, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a social innovator. He has worked at NASA and the Fairchild/Schlumberger Artificial Intelligence Lab in Palo Alto, California and has taught at MIT. He holds 27 patents and was instrumental in launching the Foundation for Climate Restoration whose purpose is to work with top scientists, innovators, policymakers, and others to create the understanding and policy needed to further climate restoration. He is co-author with Carole Douglis of: Climate Restoration: The Only Future That Will Sustain the Human Race (Rivertown Books 2022) 

Interview Date: 9/25/2022     Tags: Peter Fiekowsky, Paris Accords, net zero carbon emissions, climate restoration, CO2 in atmosphere, CO2 footprint, development of civilization, history of agriculture, human population, number of children per family, I Am Humanity, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Science

Linda Yael Schiller, MSE, LICSW is a psychotherapist who has taught dreamwork and led dream groups for over three decades. She teaches and consults on trauma treatment, PTSD, and nightmares. She is the author of: Modern Dreamwork: New Tools for Decoding Your Soul’s Wisdom (Llewellyn Publications 2019) and PTSDreams: Transform Your Nightmares from Trauma through Healing Dreamwork (Llewellyn Publications 2021).

Interview Date: 9/15/2022    Tags: Linda Yael Schiller, dream work, nightmares, Justine’s dream of horse and stone wall, sleeping dreams, waking dreams, dreams as homeopathic inoculations, GAIA Method of dreamwork, guided active imagination approach to dreamwork, C.G. Jung, EMDR, Dreams, Personal Transformation