The New Dimensions Café

Justin Zorn has served as a senior advisor for Policy and Strategy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He has also served as a meditation teacher in the U.S. Congress and is a Harvard-and-Oxford-trained specialist in the economics and psychology of wellbeing. Leigh Marz is a collaboration consultant and leadership coach for major universities, nonprofit coalitions, and federal agencies. Marz and Zorn are the cofounders of Astrea Strategies whose purpose is to help businesses, nonprofits, and leaders find creative and enduring solutions in living beyond the noise. They are the co-authors of Golden: The Power of Silence in A World of Noise. (Harper Wave 2022)

Interview Date: 6/30/2022    Tags: Leigh Marz, Justin Zorn, noise, silence, auditory noise, informational noise, noise in our heads, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Eric Schmidt, mediation retreat, Mindfulness, poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama, Social Change/Politics, Personal Transformation

Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology, and student of ritual in traditional cultures. He has scoured the world to bring to us meaningful folk tales that tap into ancestral sources of wisdom and acts as a guide to connect them to the stories we are living today. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation. He also offers regular Living Myths Podcasts and workshops. He is the author of many books including Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss (GreenfirePress 2012), Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2012) , The Genius Myth (GreenfirePress 2016), Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World (GreenFire Press 2018) and The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2019)

Interview Date: 6/17/2022    Tags: Michael Meade, archetype, apocalypse, collapse, renewal, collective darkness, threshold, doorway, liminal times, COVID, prophecy, river of time, inspiration, imagination, letting go, ego, little self, Mnemosyne Greek Goddess of Memory, unseen world, what’s forgotten coming into consciousness, creativity, falling apart, renewal, birth, death, rebirth, Mythology, Psychology, Personal Transformation

Mamphela Ramphele, M.D., Ph.D. is an activist, medical doctor, academic, businesswoman, and global servant. Besides her medical degree, she holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology. She was the managing director of the World Bank, and is a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, as well as chairwoman of the Bishop Desmond Tutu Trust. She also serves as co-president of the Club of Rome, which was founded in 1968 as a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is to identify holistic solutions to complex global issues, and to promote policy initiatives and actions to enable humanity to emerge from multiple planetary emergencies. She is the author of A Passion for Freedom (I.B. Tauris 2014), Conversations with My Sons and Daughters (Penguin 2013) and Dreams, Betrayal and Hope (Penguin Books 2017)

Interview Date: 5/22/2022    Tags: Mamphela Ramphele, apartheid, South Africa, political settlement, socio-economic development, Zondo Commission, University of Stellenbosch, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, securicrats, ANC Government, ubuntu, History, Social Change/Politics, philosophy, Education

Debra Silverman holds a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and has specialized in helping thousands of individuals achieve emotional health and wisdom based on their unique personality and the four elements of water, air, earth, and fire. She combines this work with her expertise in Soul-Centered Astrology. She is a host of an on-line radio program “Tell me a Story.” She works on an individual basis as well as with groups, and is the author of The Missing Element: Inspiring Compassion for the Human Condition (Findhorn Press 2016). She is the author of The Missing Element: Inspiring Compassion for the Human Condition (Findhorn Press 2016)

Interview Date: 3/3/2016    Tags: Debra Silverman, personality, water people, air people, fire people, earth people, four elements, fire element, air element, water element, earth element, missing element, shame, Psychology, Self Help, Spirituality, Relationship/Partnership/Sexuality

Andrew Harvey is an internationally acclaimed poet, novelist, translator, mystical scholar, and spiritual teacher. He is the Founder/Director of the Institute of Sacred Activism.

Tags: Andrew Harvey, artist, beauty, music, Seymour Bernstein, music of the spheres, Om, primal sound, mystics, Bach, Brahms, Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, Art, Creativity, Transformation, Philosophy, Spirituality

Lupa is a neo-shaman, artist and sustainability geek. She has been working with animal magic for more than 20 years and has developed a self-created and spirit-directed neoshamanic path. She possesses a master’s degree in counseling 

Tags: Lupa, totems, bioregion, watershed, moss, ecosystem, soil, desert, backpacking, wilderness, One Square Inch of Silence, seasons, Meditation, Ecology, Nature, Environment

Matthew McKay, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and professor at The Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. The Wright Institute offers Masters and PH.D. programs to psychologists as well as providing support and evaluation for the research needs of its students. McKay is also the founder and publisher at New Harbinger Publications.

Tags: Matthew McKay, Jordan McKay, afterlife, channeling, channeled writing, mediums, past lives, reincarnation, soul, life between lives, Death & Dying, Intuition, Psychic, Parapsychology, Paranormal, spirituality

Christian de Quincey, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and Consciousness Studies at John F. Kennedy University and Dean of Consciousness Studies at the University of Philosophical Research. He is the founder of the Wisdom Academy. 

Tags: Christian de Quincey, consciousness, information age, data, attention, matter and energy, Patterns of energy, AI, artificial intelligence, technology, intelligent behavior, purpose, sentience, consciousness knows, energy flows, ecology, interconnectedness

Jan Phillips is an award-winning photographer, writer, multimedia artist, and workshop leader. She's a co-founder of the Livingkindness Foundation, a global network for grassroots philanthropists. Early in her life she entered a convent as a novice to become a nun at the Catholic community of nuns at St. Joseph’s Provincial House in Latham, New York. After three years she was abruptly and surprisingly dismissed which led her on a life-quest to seek her personal spiritual truth. Jan Phillips is the author of many CDs and books including The Art of Original Thinking: The Making of a Thought Leader (9th Element Press 2006), Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (Quest Books 1997), God Is at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art (Quest Books 2000), Born Gay: Images & Reflections of an Ordinary Lesbian (Jan Phillips 2003), No Ordinary Time: The Rise of Spiritual Intelligence and Evolutionary Creativity (Livingkindness Foundation 2011) and Still On Fire: Field Notes of a Queer Mystic (Unity Books 2021)

Interview Date: 4/25/2022     Tags: Jan Phillips, faith, dismissal from a convent, homosexuality, coming out as gay, Catholicism, Catholic Mass, Earth as original source, car accident, activism, pacifist, we are the help that is on the way, Memoir, Religion, Spirituality

Judith Valente is a former staff writer for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Valente contributes to the US Catholic magazine and National Catholic Reporter. Besides her life as a journalist, she’s a poet, retreat leader, TV & Radio Producer, and Benedictine lay Associate. Judith Valente and Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO are co-authors of a book of letters entitled: 

How to Be: A Monk and a Journalist Reflect on Living & Dying, Purpose & Prayer, Forgiveness & Friendship (Hampton Roads 2021)

Interview Date: 4/8/2022  Tags: MP3, Judith Valente, Paul Quenon, letter writing, Covid pandemic, journalism, climbing a tree, wasting time, Spirituality